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WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 




Preparing to go into action, French front, February 27th, 1915. 

" ' It is a matter of exact mathematics,' elucidates the artillery 

commander." 



WHAT IS BACK OF 
THE WAR 



By 
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 

A uthor of 

The Russian Advance, The Meaning of the Times, Etc. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH 
PHOTOGRAPHS 



02/ 



INDIANAPOLIS 

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright 1915 ,y^.^ 

The Bobbs-Merrill Company 



-^"•t 

y^^ 



PRESS OF 

BRAUHWORTH & CO. 

BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



AUG -6 1915 

5)CI.A410UU2 



The chapters of this book are chiefly made up 
of articles that in condensed form appeared in 
Collier's Weekly, the American Review of Reviews 
and The Saturday Evening Post. And it is with 
thanks that the publisher acknowledges the courtesy 
of the editors of these periodicals for permission to 
include the articles in this volume. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I On the Doorstep of War .... 1 

II German Trench and Battery ... 19 

III The German Emperor and Two of His 

Fighting Chiefs 50 

IV A Day of Winter Battle 81 

V Some Fruits of War 109 

VI A People at War 131 

VII German Thought Back of the War — I . 164 

VIII German Thought Back of the War — II . 192 

IX Especially Shelled : French Front . . 216 

X France in Arms 244 

XI French Thought Back of the War — I . 273 

XII French Thought Back of the War — II . 296 

XIII War Conditions in England: A Contrast . 323 

XIV British Thought Back of the War — I . 363 
XV British Thought Back of the War — II . 382 

XVI Probabilities 406 



\ 



WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 



WHAT IS BACK OF 
THE WAR 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR* 

"XT 7E WERE part of those who held back the 
VV Germans at Antwerp while the bulk of the 
Belgian army were getting away. Then we ourselves 
left. For a night and a day vv^e floundered in swamps 
and marshes. We did not know where we were, where 
to go, or what to do. We became discouraged. 'What's 
the use ?' we said to one another. 'Let us get over into 
Holland.' And so we did. And here we are." 

Thus spoke a Belgian private soldier, one of the 
fifteen thousand gathered in one intern camp near 
Zeist, a town of Holland. On an open plot of ground, 
sHghtly elevated above the fields below, is this corral 
of the disarmed thousands. A barbed-wire fence, per- 
haps half a mile long and less than a quarter of a mile 
wide, incloses the ground and roughly built barracks 
and other houses where these out-of-the-war Belgian 
soldiers are confined. No trees are nearer the in- 
closure than half a mile. Back and forth, outside the 
* Written at The Hague, December 26-27, 1914. 

1 



2 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

barbed-wire fence, pace widely spaced Dutch sentries 
with bayoneted rifles on shoulder. Now and then a 
smart-looking young "Dutch West Point" officer, trim 
and slender as a girl in his gray-green uniform, enters 
and makes inspection. 

Singly or, more often, in little squads of three or 
five, the weaponless but uniformed Belgians tramp 
about or gather with surprising quickness into crowds 
whenever anything unusual or of promising interest 
occurs. Most of them are well and warmly clad and 
wear their military overcoats. Some, who at one point 
or another of the fighting had to throw away their 
clothing to swim canals or rivers as an incident of 
some retreat, are poorly and thinly dressed. But these 
are the rare exceptions. For the most part they are 
a well-fed, rosy-cheeked lot, with a mingling of scowl 
and devil-may-care on their faces as they clump about 
in their wooden shoes — for almost all have their feet 
thrust in this homely footwear. 

At first sight and smell the camp is cheerless, even 
forbidding. Multitudes of odors strike one's un- 
seasoned nostrils. But yonder stands an enormous 
building of rough new boards; it is the camp canteen, 
where the idle warriors may refresh and amuse them- 
selves. You step inside and think for a moment that 
you are in a gigantic social hall or rathskeller. Hun- 
dreds of soldiers are sitting at tables drinking their 
beer, munching their chocolate, and, without excep- 
tion, talking. Most are playing cards. Here, plainly, 
an argument is going on; there a humorist is telling 
a story; yonder a comparison of experiences is being 
made. 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 3 

Altogether a vast confusion of sound smites the ear. 
Not everybody can understand everybody, even at ad- 
joining tables. Some speak French and no Flemish; 
others Flemish and no French. Nor do all look alike 
physically or have the same general type of features. 
Only the sameness of the long blue overcoats, of the 
blue rimless caps with narrow red bands, marks them 
as comrades of a single army. 

This camp of disarmed Belgian troops makes you 
realize that you are standing on the doorstep of war. 
One never would guess that one is almost within hear- 
ing of heavy cannonading if one sauntered about the 
streets of The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amster- 
dam, or any other city or town of Holland, so quietly 
and casually do daily life and business go forward in 
the Netherlands. A hint indeed is conveyed by the 
more than usual number of Dutch soldiers which the 
watchful observer sees; yet even these are not more 
numerous than the tourist beholds who chances to be 
passing through this curious little country of wind- 
mills during the period of the annual maneuvers. 

But, for forty-eight hours before walking down the 
gangplank from the ship and setting foot on Dutch 
soil at Rotterdam, signs and omens of the approach of 
danger and tragedy are plain and vivid. From the 
moment English shores are sighted until the gun of 
salute booms out upon entering the Maas, the river 
that leads to Rotterdam, one can not escape the ad- 
vertisements that one is entering and, indeed, is within 
the zone of peril. 

The English search-lights glow from the far-ofif 
Lizard. On nearer approach to Dover they flash and 



4 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

circle and search. Just beyond this British harbor 
nearest to France, and at the point where the Channel 
is narrowest, your neutral ship is halted by a British 
vessel of war. Down comes your ship's wireless appa- 
ratus and down it stays, not only until your vessel is 
released, but almost until her prow is thrust into the 
waters of the North Sea. A British naval officer 
comes aboard and scrutinizes with the eye of a Sher- 
lock Holmes the cargo manifest, the separate bills of 
lading, and anything else that may throw light on the 
contents of the ship's hold. 

"Your passenger list, please," requests, or rather 
orders, this uniformed watchman at England's gates; 
and no biologist with a microscope ever examined more 
carefully his specimens than does this keen-eyed offi- 
cer the names and descriptions of those who have sailed 
from America for this domain of turmoil and strife. 
Nobody may pass who might turn out to be a fighting 
man on Germany's side. 

Two Luxemburg youths are called to the captain's 
cabin. The British officers (by now the examining 
officer has gone and two of higher rank are aboard) 
are decidedly suspicious. May these not be German 
reservists? Luckily for the young Luxemburgers, Doc- 
tor Henry van Dyke, American Minister to the Neth- 
erlands, is aboard. It is that admirable diplomatist 
and cultured gentleman who examines the suspected 
boys, for he represents America in Luxemburg as well 
as Holland. Also he knows intimately every foot of 
that tiny and charming country. 

"Where do you live? How is the land on this or 
that side of the town? What is its location with 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 5 

reference to the forest? Where does the river flow?" 
Promptly, correctly, the test inquiries are answered. 
The Englishmen are convinced and the trembling 
young fellows sent to their quarters. 

In the cargo is found copper wire. For hours the 
ship is detained; but, plainly, copper wire is not the 
cause, for it is consigned to the Dutch government. 
Nobody knows the reason except the British authori- 
ties, but probably some one on board is suspected of 
bearing communications or something else which the 
British do not wish to reach Germany. 

When, finally, the ban is lifted and the captain told 
that he may go ahead, the anchor is not hauled up, 
for the Channel is heavily mined, and only a narrow 
passage between the mine field and the shore is safe, 
while only three or four hours beyond is the North 
Sea, sown with explosives. So, while it is quite safe 
by daylight, no chances are taken in the dark. 

"Your place will be in boat No. 2, starboard." Lists 
of passengers, grouped and assigned to the life-boats, 
are posted up. Morning reveals every boat on the ship 
swung over the side, provisioned and ready for lower- 
ing away. Yes, surely, war is in the air! There is 
really very little danger, of course; but no infinitesimal 
precaution is neglected, for a few of the hundreds of 
mines have broken from their moorings and are afloat. 
Most of these are supposed to lose their destructive 
power after a few hours awash; but it is not always so. 

And the life-boats! If, by the millionth chance, one 
of these marine bombs should strike the prow of a 
modern liner, she would not go down. Even if the 
explosion came amidships, fifteen minutes at the very 



6 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

least would pass before the vessel could sink; and in 
ten minutes at the outside, as this ship is managed, 
every passenger and every member of the crew could 
be off in those waiting life-boats, swinging so confi- 
dently from their davits over the sides. The boat goes 
slowly, very, very slowly through the danger zone — 
the Dutch captain takes no chances, runs no risks. 

So, with every preparation made for every possible 
happening, nothing, of course, happens — so well 
marked is the passageway through the mine fields to 
the ports of neutral Holland. Whether nervous with 
apprehension' or eagerly curious to look upon a visible 
cause of all this ado, everybody is secretly or openly 
disappointed that a mine is not at least sighted.- And 
here comes a wireless from a sister ship, only four 
miles distant, that she has just passed two mines, one 
only a few hundred yards away and the other directly 
alongside. Alas ! 

Yet on the still and peaceful waters something is 
floating. It is not too far away to be seen plainly. But 
it is not a mine. It is not a plank or spar — it is just 
part of the flotsam and jetsam of war. The body of 
a man drifts upon the indifferent waters. Face down- 
ward it is, swimming the course of death, the dead eyes 
peering into the depths for the eternal mysteries. A 
sailor he had been, English or German, one of those 
who had fought in the North Sea battle a few weeks 
before. Thus he lingered upon the element where he 
had lived and worked until red combat put a period 
to it all. 

So once again before the peaceful Netherlands 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 7 

shores were sighted came this reminder that the na- 
tions are in arms. 

In some of these incidents, and in many others not 
yet mentioned, is more than mere material for dramatic 
pictures. They are more than the frayed and sullen 
fringes of life-and-death grappling conflict. Out of 
these circumstances are slowly being woven, by the 
hands of Fate, the threads of public opinion in a 
neutral country. 

But let us go, from the holding up of a neutral vessel 
by British warships in the Channel, back again to the 
Belgian soldiers interned in their war-time comfortable 
but peace-time comfortless camp. These are fifteen 
of the thirty thousand Belgian soldiers who fled to the 
neutral Netherlands in their dismay, confusion and 
discouragement, the other fifteen thousand being in a 
similar camp elsewhere in the Dutch domains. 

The living quarters of these men, while not what one 
would call orientally luxurious, are, nevertheless, not 
unbearable. Any man who lived in an American or 
Canadian logging camp thirty years ago had quarters 
less appealing. The housing of them is cold and un- 
comfortable, though each man has his own bunk, with 
nobody above him, a mattress made of coarse bagging 
filled with straw, and thick army blankets to cover him. 
As yet the floor is the bare earth and many of the roofs 
leak, but this will be remedied. 

The spectacle of the camp's immense canteen is here 
repeated with variations. One soldier is writing a let- 
ter (dozens, scores of those who are writing home, are 
seen racing to the camp's post-ofiice at the hour for 



8 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

closing the mail) ; another former combatant is mend- 
ing his clothes in quiet content. In almost every third 
stall a game of cards is being played with the same 
gusto and excitement which you have just beheld in 
the huge camp social hall. 

Now and again a more than ordinarily intelligent- 
looking fellow is so wholly engrossed in reading a 
magazine or novel that he does not even look up when 
an American visitor walks by, although such a thing 
is so unusual that to most of these detained soldiers it 
amounts to an event and a sensation. Others read 
newspapers or scraps of them. 

"Our chief complaint," said an uncommonly intelli- 
gent and French-speaking Belgian soldier, "is that we 
do not have enough to read." "Huh," said a nat- 
uralized Hollander who had lived for thirty-seven years 
on Dutch soil and is as impartial a man as can be found 
in the Netherlands. "Huh !" said he. "So that's what 
they are saying now, is it? Well, the best answer is 
that the English soldiers interned in camp at Groningen 
have written that they have more than enough reading 
matter, quite enough games, and are well content and 
thankful for their treatment. Yet all are treated alike. 
The truth is that a Belgian is grateful for nothing, or, 
rather, never is grateful for anything." 

This camp of the interned Belgian soldiers near Zeist 
is the scene of the recent riot which caused the Dutch 
soldiers on guard to shoot into the mob, killing eight 
and wounding two. There are two accounts of this 
affair. "The Netherlands government not only feed 
and house these men, but pay them twenty cents a day 
(a little over eight cents American money). Yet, al- 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 9 

though they are getting all of this from us, they said 
that the prices charged at the canteen are too high, and 
their manner of protesting was by physical force. Also, 
they will not work when work is offered them." It 
was a Holland subject who was speaking, one not con- 
nected with the government, and a good type of the 
educated middle class of the Netherlands. 

But : "The money we spent in the canteen did not 
all come from the Dutch government," said a Belgian 
interned soldier. "Most of the cash with which we 
bought chocolate, beer, buns and the like was sent us 
by friends and relatives from Belgium. And this can- 
teen, which is a private money-making enterprise, ex- 
torted outrageous prices. On standard articles, the 
selling price of which is well known and uniform, we 
were charged an amount which yielded the concession- 
aire thirty-three and one-third per cent, profit over his 
normal profit. We rebelled. Of course it was foolish, 
but some of us expressed our sentiments by throwing 
rocks through the windows of the canteen." 

"All this has been looked into," said a Hollander, 
"and as a result, Dutch public opinion is decided and 
practically unanimous against the Belgians in this in- 
stance. Inquire about and find out for yourself." In- 
quiring about accordingly was done, and this Dutch- 
man's emphatic report of public opinion was confirmed. 

A crowded cafe, where the common people gather 
to meet, converse and listen to the occasional music, 
was filled with talk, laughter and smoke. One could 
not help overhearing strident conversations. "These 
Belgians ! Ach! I can not endure them !" said a young 
Dutch woman of the working class to her companions 



10 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

at a near-by table. "Dirty — oh, so dirty and shiftless 
and idle ! They take all they can get and want more, 
and they are never thankful. They will not work." 

"Unless it is racial it is a very curious thing that the 
Belgians, whom war has driven to us and whom we 
welcomed, do not want to work. To be sure, there is 
not much work to do, but they do not want and will 
not do the little that is offered them. It does not in- 
crease our respect for them, to say the least." Such 
was the comment of a member of the Dutch land- 
owning nobility. Her point of view and that of the 
working girl in the cafe differed only in the manner 
of expression. The former was speaking of the 
refugees; the latter of all Belgians. 

"Oh, yes, a little work was offered us," said a Bel- 
gian interned soldier. "Not enough to hurt, but a lit- 
tle. We would not do it — but why? Because it took 
just that much employment away from Dutch labor- 
ers. Of course, I am a Socialist," he explained. "We 
do not think it is right to take work from those who 
need it, especially when the offer of employment is 
made only because the would-be employer expects to 
get us cheaply." 

Still, public opinion in the Netherlands, judged by 
different and, measured by the social scale, antipodal 
sources, is against the Belgians, whether interned sol- 
dier or fleeing refugee, on their unwillingness to work, 
their ingratitude, and their bumptiousness. Dutch no- 
bleman and Dutch peasant are in accord on this point ; 
and nothing is rarer than an agreement on anything 
between the aristocracy and the common people of 
Holland. 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 11 

While there are only thirty thousand Belgian sol- 
diers interned within the impartial boundaries of this 
placid land, around which war is swirling in wild 
carousal, there are more than five hundred thousand 
Belgian refugees on Dutch soil. These are collected 
in various "refugee camps" or sojourning in the 
houses of well-to-do Hollanders. One wealthy capital- 
ist of Amsterdam affords shelter, food and clothing 
for eighty. Those who thus have been taken into pri- 
vate houses are of the better grade. 

Some of the rich Belgians live luxuriously in the best 
and most expensive hotels. Against these latter there 
is distinct, though not outspoken, resentment on the 
part of the Dutch people, both rich and poor alike. 
"For," say these Hollanders, "we are supporting hun- 
dreds of thousands of the fellow countrymen and 
women of these opulent Belgians, and yet not one 
guilder will they take from their deep, fat purses to 
aid us in our work of relief of their own less fortunate 
compatriots." 

Said an informed and quite indifferent American 
on this point: "Look around you. Here in this din- 
ing room you may see some of these very Belgians of 
whose wealth and parsimony the Hollanders complain. 
Everything the latter say is quite true." 

"Yes, but you must remember," remarked another 
American of more judicial temperament, "that these 
rich Belgians feel that they must in the end bear most 
of the financial brunt of the war, no matter how the 
conflict turns out; if Germany wins, it is out of their 
pockets that most of the war indemnity will be taken; 
if the Allies w^in, still from the coffers of these rich 



12 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Belgians must come most of the war taxes necessary to 
rehabilitate their comitry; and this is the view-point 
at the present moment of these moneyed Belgian 
refugees. They think that what the Hollanders declare 
to be their stinginess is merely the prudent virtue of 
being long-headed and forehanded." 

In a Belgian refugee camp there was found a mix- 
ture of opinion, but, speaking by and large, no opinion 
at all. *'Oh, yes, of course we would work if they 
would give us any work to do ; anything is better than 
the labor of doing nothing. But these Dutch don't 
offer us work — not yet, at least. We hear that they 
will after a while, but so far it has not turned up." So 
commented one Belgian refugee. 

"As for me," said another refugee in this same camp, 
*T think we are treated very well. Of course there 
are some people who would not be satisfied in Heaven. 
Take our food, for instance. It is good enough under 
the circumstances. There are hundreds in this very 
camp who right this minute are eating a better meal 
than they have ever had in their lives." 

The interior of the big dining place, which accommo- 
dated many hundreds (there were several others of the 
same size), revealed what this meal was and also the 
quality of those who were eating it. A thick, sav^ory, 
nourishing soup made by boiling meat, cabbages and 
potatoes together; the meat thus boiled; big cups of 
steaming coffee and an abundance of "black bread" 
made up the bill of fare in the Belgian refugees' camp 
on Christmas Day, 1914. 

It is precisely the same on every other day. For 
breakfast, coffee and bread; for the evening meal. 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 13 

coffee, bread and potatoes — these, with the midday 
meal described, constitute the daily feeding of the 
stranded Belgian refugees in the camps of Holland. 
The thousands quartered on hospitable Dutch families 
fare still better, of course. Judging by the European 
standard of living, the thrifty Hollanders consider 
that their war-invited guests are faring c^uite gener- 
ously. 

All this exposes one cause of the plainly apparent 
anti-Belgian feeling in the Netherlands. This Dutch 
dislike of their neighbors has its roots deep in the soil 
of history; it is almost hereditary. Thus is seen a 
veering around of public sympathy and sentiment; for 
when, at first, this army of the unfortunate crossed 
the frontier in want, terror and despair with their 
tales of woe, even Holland's heart, which is wary and 
by no means worn on the sleeve, was touched. The 
Dutch, high and low, were in that hour all for their 
homeless neighbors. 

But now? "Well, a Belgian is always a Belgian," 
remarked one of the Dutch gentry, and shrugged his 
shoulders. "After all," he added, "history tells no 
lies." 

It must be said that those in the refugee camps do 
not inspire admiration. Here and there a well-appear- 
ing person is found; and occasionally a very pretty 
child. Once a really beautiful young woman was seen, 
but she, unfortunately, was in the segregated women's 
quarters. By far the greater number are stolid and 
unwholesome in appearance. Many are seemingly dis- 
eased. 

"Oh, well," said a carefully informed man, "these 



14 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

people in the camps are what you call the 'riff-raff.' " 
It is this majority that seem to have no opinion of any 
kind on anything. 

According to one closely connected with the com- 
pany owning the neutral ship, the holding up in the 
Straits of Dover of the vessel cost the owners several 
thousands of dollars; for, although it was detained but 
twelve hours, this meant that it was more than a day 
late in reaching the home port. When the ship, re- 
leased at midnight, weighed anchor at dawn and pro- 
ceeded on the last day of her voyage, she was twice 
stopped again. 

"Boom!" came the sound of a British warship's 
gun, and when the liner, not understanding the signal, 
went ahead, "Boom !" again spoke the cannon from the 
deck of this British naval watchdog. Captain and offi- 
cers fumed and raged. "This costs money! Are we 
to be held up again?" Alongside a launch came pant- 
ing from the British guard ship; the release was ex- 
plained. "Proceed!" said the British officer. Once 
more this process was repeated; and then, further in- 
terruption impossible, the liner sailed cautiously to her 
destination. 

But she carried irritation with her. Irritation, too, 
awaited her in port, a growing resentment as real as 
it is restrained and suppressed. The detention and 
practical search of these neutral vessels is having its 
effect on the Dutch business classes. Their patience 
was taxed when, some weeks after the outbreak of the 
war, one of the largest of Holland's merchant fleet 
was stopped by a French warship, convoyed to the 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 15 

harbor of Brest, kept there eleven days, and then re- 
heved of most of its cargo with decision and courtesy. 

A million dollars in silver bars were taken off; "for," 
said the French commander, "this may be going to 
Germany; if so, we will keep it; if not, we will return 
it." Large quantities of flour, beer and the like were 
also taken ashore. "But this is not even conditional 
contraband, carried as it is in a neutral bottom from 
a neutral port to a neutral port and consigned from 
neutrals to neutrals," protested the merchantman's cap- 
tain. "If it so turns out," answered the French officer 
laughingly, "we will pay you for it." 

"In Holland we call this piracy," said the captain. 
"Never mind, never mind," laughed the local French 
sea lord. "We need it anyhow. There is a war going 
on, you know. Don't worry. We will pay you for it 
if you never see it again. Have a cigarette 1" 

Thus the incident was closed. Sure enough, these 
foodstuffs never were seen again, but they were paid 
for. The silver bullion was sent to Holland. But the 
money loss resulting from the ship's long detention 
was not made good. The business disturbance caused 
by the non-arrival of the consigned goods was not 
quieted. 

Here is one source of a change in Dutch public opin- 
ion — a change so slight or so well concealed that it 
scarcely is perceptible, can easily be denied, and might 
not be noted except by a careful weighing of senti- 
ment and the forces moving it. Also, a feathers 
weight of adverse circumstance might throw it the 
other way. 



16 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

As between England and Germany the scales of 
Dutch opinion were at first ahnost evenly balanced. It 
can not be said that they are not still in equilibrium, as 
indeed they always have been. But if there is any 
scant descent of the scales on one side or another, it 
is at the present moment favorable to Germany. To- 
morrow it may veer toward England. 

"We Hollanders do not trust either England or Ger- 
many, nor, for that matter, anybody else ; but especially 
these two belligerents in the present war," said a 
Dutchman of moderate means, some position and a 
characteristically Dutch attitude. "The Dutchman," 
he continued, "thinks the German a liar until he proves 
himself truthful; but the Dutchman thinks the> Eng- 
lishman a rogue and a liar until he proves himself 
honest as well as truthful." 

It is worthy of note that the average man or woman 
in the Netherlands always speaks of the war as though 
it were a conflict exclusively between Great Britain 
and Germany. Apparently the Dutch common people 
never think of France or Russia as combatants; and 
as for Austria and Servia, one would never know 
that such countries existed if one judged by the casual 
talk of Hollanders among themselves. 

Astounding, even absurd, as it may sound to Ameri- 
can ears, it is nevertheless true that among the plain 
people of Holland there is a deadly fear that Great 
Britain will violate' the sovereignty of the Netherlands. 

"This is unthinkable," said the pursuer of facts. 
"Unthinkable it may be, but unthinkable or not, it is 
true," answered a member of the Dutch bourgeoisie. 



ON THE DOORSTEP OF WAR 17 

"What I fear is that England — " came a sentence 
floating upon the stream of talk in a popular eating 
place. So unexpected, so much by chance, and so 
many were the expressions like these that inquiry was 
suggested. And this confirmed these strange and gro- 
tesque sentiments. 

"It is historic," said a highly educated Dutchman; 
"you know our people are very slow, especially at for- 
getting. Suppose you read up on Dutch history again. 
The Boer War for instance." 

Still more amazing is the lack of terror of Germany. 
One does not care to write what has been heard of 
acquiescence in even German absorption — and this, 
too, from the masses themselves. 

The principal fear of Germany appears to be that of 
commercial rivalry in case she wins. "Rotterdam is 
our great port ; far the best on the North Sea ; better 
than Antwerp if controlled by Belgium. But suppose 
Germany keeps Antwerp ? With her greater resources, 
her system and energy, Antwerp as a German port, 
though naturally inferior to Rotterdam, would, we 
think, take from us the bulk of trade." This was an 
expression from one of the commercial class engaged 
in shipping. 

So it is that Dutch public opinion, carefully balanced 
and self-contained, yet inclines slightly toward her 
mighty eastern neighbors in the closing days of 1914. 
Events wnll determine it in the future. The only thing 
that can be safely said is that the Dutchman is not 
pro-German nor yet pro-English, but decidedly pro- 
Dutch. And Holland's vigorous and, if necessary. 



18 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

menacing little army, highly trained, is sleeping on its 
arms — no, not sleeping, but standing at attention. 

That army would instantly resist any appearance 
upon Dutch soil of any force coming for the purposes 
of the present war, whether that force were German, 
English, or of any other belligerent power. One must 
admire the Dutch. Their cool-headedness, their readi- 
ness for action and their self-contained wariness of 
overt act, their undoubted yet quiet courage, their 
solid cautious sense, — all these qualities compel respect 
and esteem. 



II 

GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY* 

OVER the city of Lille, in northern France, thick 
clouds lowered weightily. An occasional drop 
of rain spat venge fully from the heavens. Evening 
was falling. "There will be a storm to-night," re- 
marked the wanderer among strange scenes. 

"Oh, no — just one of these everlasting rains," re- 
plied a German officer, standing in the group. "It is 
always like this." 

"But," persisted the stranger, "listen to that low 
heavy thunder, so full of body. That means a storm." 

"Why, my dear sir," laughed the military one, "that 
is not thunder — that is artillery." 

"Artillery! How far away?" 

"Oh, I should say that firing is near Comines, about 
ten miles off." 

A little bit abrupt this, with a trace of gentle thrill, 
to one fresh from Berlin not thirty hours distant by 
railway — peaceful, busy, casual, matter-of-fact, yet 
serious Berlin. For this capital of a mighty nation 
at war shows few signs of being the center of the 
greatest of all epochal conflicts of history. Shops and 



* Written at the German Western Front, January 9th and 
10th, 1915. 

19 



20 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

stores all open; prices normal, even the usual first-of- 
January sales at reduced figures going on; streets 
thronged with men and women, thousands of the men 
of military age; theaters, amusement halls, moving- 
picture shows crowded with patrons; cafes and Bier- 
stuben filled with quiet, pleasant German folk — ap- 
parently almost the Berlin of peace time, except for 
occasional companies of troops in F eld gran, and 
now and then a bandaged soldier on the streets. In- 
deed, to one expecting marching thousands, closed 
windows, dour faces, hurrying ambulances, black days 
and nights, with streets and houses darkened, Berlin 
surprises the visitor much more than does the far- 
distant battlefield. 

And Lille itself, captured city of France, held by the 
conquerors! At first sight you wonder that this can 
be so. For here, too, the sidewalks are full of peo- 
ple — men, women, children ; here, too, stores and shops 
are open, purchasers passing in and out ; here, too, the 
street-cars rumble over the complaining rails. 

But for the great number of soldiers thickly cluster- 
ing everywhere, but for the largest of Lille's cafes 
monopolized by powerful-looking men wearing the uni- 
form of the German officer, and but for that growling 
menace which you have learned is the sound of cannon 
instead of the voice of the impatient heavens — but for 
these war tokens, the newly arrived observer in his 
first moments of astonishment would never think Lille 
the victim of conquest. 

To be sure, war's reddest advertisement has flared 
in your face as you enter the Lille station; for there, 
on adjoining tracks, two long hospital trains filled with 



' GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 21 

wounded are ready for departure to the permanent 
hospitals. Also, tall helmeted officers greet you; and 
rising above the front of the military automobile 
which you enter, a long edged hook, slanting back- 
ward, lifts itself higher than your head. It is to 
break the wires that sometimes are stretched across 
roads to cut the throats of those in these military cars, 
who drive like the wind in darkness as well as light. 

Then, too, here and there, what once were great 
buildings, are now only masses of brick, stone, mortar 
and twisted iron. But demolished structures, uni- 
formed officers, plunging autos, mangled men — all of 
these you had expected. And you had not expected 
evidences of peaceful, orderly and ordinary civil life. 

Indeed, it is a long time from your departure from 
Berlin station that the work of war's strong, rough 
and efficient hand strikes your eye; a still longer time 
before even your expectant senses detect war's pungent 
atmosphere. You are many miles into France when 
the gaunt walls of shell-destroyed houses first flash 
past you. A space farther on and you stop for a 
moment at a good-sized town; three wagons, bur- 
dened with great loads of straw, drawn by six power- 
ful horses driven by soldiers; other wagons loaded 
with provisions; a long train on the siding bearing 
munitions of war covered with canvas; two coffins 
resting on the station platform, and one more borne 
by four stalwart soldiers; along the central street 
houses smashed and crumpled; in an open space some 
two hundred sturdy, bearded, middle-aged, grave- 
faced men in long black uniform overcoats, with black 
leather caps bearing gold crosses above the peaks — all 



22 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

these are signals of your approach to the still distant 
fighting zone. 

Yet, absurd paradox, just beyond the town a flock 
of sheep grazing; in a near-by field a peasant plowing; 
on a roadway a steam roller grunting back and forth 
in its leveling toil. And then, again, just beyond, 
scores of provision wagons ranged in military orderli- 
ness. 

But those three coffins, burnished oak affairs with 
drooping gold wreaths along their sides ! They bear 
the bodies of those killed in battle whose relatives have 
been fortunate enough to find and retrieve them from 
the welter of the slain — only the other day a father 
had told you of his long but futile search for a missing 
son. 

Or perhaps in these coffins rest the bodies of princes, 
who also were soldiers and officers and who died 
fighting at the front — eight of these highest born have 
already paid this crimson and heroic tribute to their 
country. 

And those serious- faced, big- framed, bewhiskered 
men in black uniforms. They are the Landsturm 
— solid citizens, fathers of families, doing guard duty 
at the bridges along the roads, but splendid soldiers if 
ever the time comes when they are needed in trench or 
battery pit. 

The crumpled houses of Dinant or shell-riddled 
Givet fail to produce any reaction of astonishment 
when you reach them, so much have you seen already 
of the furrowing of war's rude plowshare. The tear- 
ing, smashing work of the German artillery on Givet's 
picturesque fortress, perched high above the River 




French bridge "built for the eternities, blown into gigantic 
fragments" \)y the retreating French; steel structure quickly but 
strongly built by the Germans to replace it; barb wire entangle- 
ment to check possible night attempt to dynamite bridge. 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 23 

Meuse, does give a slight start — here you stand in 
what once was supposed to be a bomb-proof under- 
ground chamber, now open to the sky, its futile yards 
of masonry and earth protection blown to the winds 
or toppled into the chamber itself, covering the bodies 
of French artillerymen, who now lie buried beneath 
the debris before you; there you 'pick up a large slab 
from a German melinite shell, its splintered edges 
knifelike in their sharpness, to bring home as a souve- 
nir. How it must have torn and cut and smashed ! 
It is but one of many similar slivers from a single 
shell. 

But, strange psychology, you are more attracted by 
the phenomenon of fresh and growing life surround- 
ing this havoc than you are by the cannon's heavy 
handiwork. The pale green of winter wheat, already 
coloring faintly the fields below, astonishes you more 
than the huge pockmarks dug on their faces by the 
high explosives. 

All about life has overtaken death— -even the slope 
from which the fortress hill rises is freshly plowed. 
An earnest, this, of what you are soon to behold even 
when beneath the monstrous missiles of great guns 
screaming over your head. Life, the vitality of nature 
and the heart of man, triumphant over death's tempo- 
rary ravaging! 

And so on to Lille ; the ponderous arches of mighty 
bridges which the French had built for the eternities, 
but which, in their retreat, they had blown into gigan- 
tic fragments, tumbled grotesquely about you; rising 
above you, the equally strong steel structures with 
which the German engineers already have replaced 



24 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

them; the wire entanglements in process of construc- 
tion before your eyes by German soldiers; an aero- 
plane flying so high above you that it looks like a 
great bird — all these you note with less interest than 
peasants plowing in the fields, a boy unloading straw 
from a wagon, cows grazing on the winter herbage, 
clusters of chickens voraciously busy in the barn- 
yards. 

And so you come to the firing-line, the trenches and 
the batteries, the snap of rifle, the rattling chuckle of 
the mitrailleuses, the heavy voices of the mortars. 

The night is still thick when the military automobile 
starts with you in its swift journey to the trenches. 
No lights glow in the windows of villages, whose in- 
habitants are not yet astir. You hear the crowing of 
a cock even above the noise of the auto, and once a 
little dog rushes out, barking his impotent defiance. A 
curious portent hangs in the sky — the morning star — 
shining with such a vast circumference that you insist 
that it is no star at all, but a military arc lamp, sus- 
pended by some uncanny wizardry of war. 

At a crossing of roads in the open country the auto- 
mobile is halted. Figures approach with electric lights 
glowing from their breasts, like uncanny beings from 
another world. They are the officers you met at 
dinner many miles away early in this very night, yet 
long since on duty at the outposts. 

Finally, as dawn breaks and the countryside un- 
rolls, you enter a little hamlet. The opposing cannon 
have already begun their hoarse and throaty quarrel. 
You go into a church, the walls of which have as many 
openings made by guns as they have windows fash- 
ioned by architect and mason. From piles of litter 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 25 

you pick up a dust covered prayer-book lying in melan- 
choly neglect. 

You climb the church tower by a staircase and then 
by iron ladder, held steadily by soldiers as you mount, 
until you sit upon the beams from which the church 
bell swings. Then, through the great slats, you look 
upon the French and German trenches, startlingly 
near, and behold the region where the contending 
artillery are planted, though you can not detect a single 
battery, so perfectly are they hidden. 

"Be careful! Don't show yourself, or we may get 
a shot !" comes a warning voice behind you. 

And now for the trenches themselves. The can- 
non's continuous booming no longer greatly impresses 
you ; but the Schutzengrahen hold for you a tingle of 
expectation. Down the village street you walk on to a 
broad road bordered by woods; the crack and rattle of 
rifle firing smites your ear as if coming from just 
around the corner. 

Between two groups of buildings there is a short 
open space. The officers stoop low as they cross this 
exposed point and bid you do the like; for standing 
erect means being seen by the enemy and an invitation 
to the French marksmen to try their skill on you. You 
feel ridiculous as you assume this absurd posture; it 
seems so unnecessary. 

Then another unobstructed space which you pass, 
up to your knees in mud and water, by means of a 
trench, which conceals you, and so down to a tiny 
cup in the hills, where a brick house stands, one room 
for trench reserves waiting their turn and another for 
the company's officers — the captain a good-looking 
young lawyer. For, as you are to find, men of all 



26 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

professions, of every calling, are in Germany's battle 
line — writers and shoemakers, poets and bricklayers, 
masters of great business concerns and their em- 
ployees, university professors and tailors, blacksmiths 
and opera singers, many of them volunteers — a very 
democracy of war. 

Wet and muddy overcoats hang on trees or are 
spread on bushes, for, unusual circumstance, the over- 
worked clouds have not poured out their Niagaras for 
three hours or more, and once, for a moment, the sun 
actually has shown his tardy and shamefaced visage. 

The garrulous and multitudinous voices of the rifles 
are very close at hand, just over the crest of the hill 
which you even now are climbing. You can detect 
plainly the different sides of this leaden debate, and 
know that a far heavier fire is coming from one set 
of trenches than from the other. It is the French 
who are burning this extra powder, you are told, — 
they are shooting at least five shots to every one fired 
by their German foe. You would have the reason. 

"It is nervousness," remarks a German major, who, 
by the way, speaks English without accent, and whose 
relationship is American. "Nerves and an oversensi- 
tive imagination. Our French friends can not hold 
themselves in, it appears. I do not say this in unkind- 
ness, for they are brave men, but perhaps more emo- 
tional and less steady than our men." 

What was this? "French friends!" And this 
from a German officer wearing the iron cross won by 
gallantry in action! "French friends" and a compli- 
ment, with only the gentlest criticism, from one of 
those Bavarians whose traditional ferocity when in 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 27 

battle has elicited anew the attention of the world! 
These chance remarks switch your thought from 
plunging bullet and rifle pit even as you mount toward 
them. "French friends!" And spoken in unmistak- 
able tones of friendliness amid such scenes I 

And so at last to the trenches, the real fighting 
trenches. You zigzag to them through similar ap- 
proaching channels. Five feet deep, at least, they are, 
with an additional foot and a half of earth dug from 
them and ridged above them on the side facing the 
enemy, serving as an added protection for the riflemen. 

Just before entering the fighting ditches you see an 
underground room hollowed from the earth. You 
are told to go in if you like, and as you cross this 
warrior threshold you read these words written on a 
board nailed to the wooden lintel : 

"Villa Ruheort — The Hearthstone Is More Precious 
than Gold." 

It is the quarters of noncommissioned officers in 
charge of this particular firing squad. Clean dry straw 
carpets the earthen floor. A large cracked mirror 
stands on a crude stool-like table, on which are lying 
two or three books. One of them is on Wagner, an- 
other a play by Hauptmann. Two of these military 
earth dwellers are within and greet you pleasantly. 

Through the trenches themselves you flounder, with 
mud or water or their slimy combination slushing far 
up about your legs. You stoop, under orders, every 
now and again when, walking over a caved-in lump 
of earth, your head if unbent is brought above the 
surface and in sight of the keen-eyed French sharp- 
shooters — you will get a shot if they see your cap. 



28 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

You pass the men who are doing the fighting. Here 
and there they have made benches or footholds, on 
which they stand, an inch or two above the trench's 
slush. Apertures, perhaps six inches wide by two 
deep, made by pieces of wood, appear in the loose 
earth piled above the trench, looking toward the 
enemy. 

Through these the soldiers scan the opposing line, 
and they fire when an unwary or curious head comes 
into view, although most of the shooting is done with 
rifle resting on the top of the earth ridge of the trench. 
You look yourself and see the French trenches quite 
plainly with the naked eye ; indeed, they are not a hun- 
dred yards away. A little farther on the hostile lines 
are only forty or fifty yards apart, A clump of trees 
crests a gentle elevation a short distance behind the 
French rifle line, and here French machine guns are 
in watchful hiding. 

The rifle firing, sometimes only a p-f-1-o-t ! p-f-1-o-t ! 
and again so frequent that it is like scores of giant 
firecrackers exploded by a single fuse, seems only a 
few feet away from where you stand. Yet the sol- 
diers by your side do no firing ; no bullets whistle over 
you; no one near you is wounded or killed, and a 
curious feeling of unreality and play-acting steals over 
you. 

You have a most unworthy and brutal feeling that 
you are being cheated. You fervently hope that no 
one will be hit, no one wounded or killed. And 
yet. "Well, if somebody is sure to be shot in the 
trenches to-day, if this be fate's unchangeable decree, 
let it be now, when I can see, and not half an hour 




German fighting trench near Arras, France, January 8, 1915. 
The French trenches are from forty to an hundred yards away. 
The good-humored faces and excellent physical condition of the 
German soldiers are notable. Heavy rifle firing a few feet beyond; 
"sometimes only a p-f-1-o-t ! p-f-1-o-t ! and again so frequent 
that it is like scores of giant firecrackers exploded by a single fuse." 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 29 

later, when I shall be gone" — so runs your almost sub- 
conscious thought. You feel under obligation to your 
editor to miss no red event. 

But the kindly smiles, the good-humored faces, the 
expression of physical contentment which comes of 
being well fed and cared for ! Once more your men- 
tal processes about-face from the clamor of hostilities 
toward this new view-point. You forget the dramatic 
phase and go to wondering about these brawny, cheer- 
ful-looking soldiers. And what astonishing educa- 
tion — you fall in conversation later on in an hour of 
leisure with one about Chamberlin's books. He speaks 
English perfectly. 

Before leaving by a zigzag exit, exactly like your 
approach, you note and carefully examine little cham- 
bers or dens dug in the earth of the trench's wall, 
always on the side toward the enemy. They are per- 
haps seven feet long, four feet wide, three feet deep, 
the roof and sides kept from caving in by wooden sup- 
ports. The cold, hard earthen floor is softened and 
warmed by thick layers of clean dry straw; a flap of 
canvas or gunnysack shields the entrance from day- 
light and the chilly air. 

Into one after another of these firing-line bedcham- 
bers you peer, and in every one a soldier is fast asleep, 
fully clad, even to boots, overcoat and cap. You have 
not intruded, for nothing so trivial as the poking about 
of a civilian investigator awakens these war sleepers. 

Thus you learn part of the routine of these particu- 
lar trenches — twenty- four hours in these Schut::en- 
grahen, two hours watching and firing, four hours 
sleeping in the cubby-holes; then two hours of duty 



30 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

on foot again, and so on; then forty-eight hours 
of rest in buildings, if any are near by, or, if not, in the 
equally comfortable, big, semi-underground, roomy 
bunk places ; then three days of real rest a little farther 
back, but still within quick call ; then three more days 
in some comparatively distant yet neighboring village 
still farther in the rear, where the soldier alternates 
between enjoying himself and plowing the fields if the 
French peasants are not already performing that task. 

And then back to the trenches again, and the same 
routine of service and repose. This routine is not 
uniform — it varies with different armies, even with 
various divisions. 

And here is a problem for the psychologist burrow- 
ing his mole-like way into the hidden causes of human 
action and preference — the men are anxious to get 
back from the safety and comfort of village life or 
cozy subterranean comradeship to the danger and dis- 
comfort of the fighting pit. You do not in the least 
understand this soldier choice, but you feel it vaguely 
yourself long before you are told it. For, lunching 
an hour later, some miles away, with the general com- 
manding that corps and his staff, in a big attractive 
house in perfect safety amid engaging companionship, 
you are ashamed to find that you are not as apprecia- 
tive as courtesy demands and justifies. 

You wish you were back there in the rain and mud, 
the impolite snap of rifles in your ears, bitten by the 
tang of the unusual and perilous. Can it be that war 
has its ultimate roots in the far depths of human na- 
ture? Can it be man's blind method of relief 
from soul-rotting, spirit-quenching monotony? Can 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 31 

it be that the fuse which explodes the destroying shell 
also tears apart those gold and silken meshes with 
which convention and the ordinary wrap, mummy- 
like, the intellect and aspirations of man? Can it be — 
hideous and forbidding thought! — that the ages have 
found no better way than this of stirring the waters 
of the soul from the stagnation of routine? 

You would make acquaintance with the great guns 
whose booming voice is never still, seems never weary ; 
you would listen more closely to the argument of the 
artillery — and here luck favors you. It so happens 
that an officer, with American relationships, has charge 
of a wide round of inspection as the direct representa- 
tive of the commander-in-chief of the army. You 
had met him at dinner and found him attractive, quiet, 
informed, cordial. 

"Come along with me if you like. I shall be glad 
to have you," says this major-adjutant. 

"I should like it very much, but won't my being with 
you interfere with your duties?" 

"Not in the least," he replies, "and you really may 
happen to see something." 

You find that a painter of German battle scenes, 
who is in high favor with the German army, men and 
officers alike, also is going. He speaks English per- 
fectly, which adds to your momentary and accidental 
good fortune. So away plunges the great military 
auto over the perfect roads of France toward the 
sound of the cannonade, which grows louder and 
clearer with every turn of the flying wheels. A square 
white tower, like an ancient castle with a quaint French 
village clustered about it, rises from among the trees. 



32 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"We are using that as our observation point — we 
shall be able to see the whole field from there," ex- 
plains the officer. 

The few inhabitants of the village are walking about 
quite unconcernedly, attending to their daily tasks, the 
thunder of the guns long since a twice-told tale to 
them and now a part of their ordinary life. Many 
German soldiers are in the streets — again you note 
their healthful appearance and the good humor of 
their faces. 

An elderly French peasant walks by, lifting his cap 
to the German officers, who return his greeting with 
civility. A French woman stands in a doorway, hold- 
ing in her arms a laughing child. 

Now you go on to the tower and find yourself on 
its flat, railed-in roof, where a glass of the highest 
power, mounted on a tripod, sweeps the whole coun- 
try and brings the far distance almost beneath your 
feet. Through these lenses a town which you can see 
with your naked eye appears to be within a five min- 
utes' saunter from where you stand — you can make 
out the details of a ruined brick house standing at the 
town's edge. 

In the distance, to the right, white cathedral spires 
rise like a beautiful unreality. The edifice is be- 
ing shelled because the French are using it for ob- 
servation purposes, precisely as the Germans are em- 
ploying the tower on which you stand. This latter, 
however, is of no artistic value or historic interest, and 
has no sacred uses. You wonder why the French do 
not shell it, for it is in possible range of their heaviest 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 33 

ordnance. Also, it is the point from which the effect 
of the German explosives is noted and directions tele- 
phoned to the widely scattered batteries. 

"You see that smoke? It is one of the French 
shells exploding," you are told as a pallid cloud sud- 
denly arises from a field a considerable distance to 
your right. Then you note another and still another 
of these flowers of conflict. 

And always the harsh but not repellent crash of the 
cannon's barbaric orchestration! Yes, and the green 
of recurring life in the fields where this iron dispute 
is going forward, the tender sproutings of the young 
wheat in patches here and there ! 

Yet no crimson event strikes your eye, and once 
more you feel that nothing really is happening. There 
is not much of hazard, you think, in going to the bat- 
teries themselves. 

On your way through the village the foolish and 
impossible thought strikes you : "I wish some of these 
villagers spoke English !" And you utter that absurd 
remark. 

"Why, there is one," answers the German physician 
in medical charge at that point. "There is a peasant 
girl who, I believe, learned a little English somehow. 
Her family's house is just around the corner. Go talk 
to her, if you wish." 

You find that the girl in question lives with her 
mother, aunt and younger brother, in a typical house 
of the French peasant. Neither she nor any of the 
inmates seems alarmed ; plainly they are on good 
terms with the German invaders. 



34 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Do these Germans treat you well?" you question. 

"Oh, yes, we are well treated," she makes out to say 
in her broken English, 

"You do not fear them, then?" 

"No, not now. But we feared them very much 
before they came." 

"You say they have treated you well — but have they 
done anything for you?" 

"When they came we had very little left to eat. 
The captain of the German light cavalry had his sol- 
diers bake bread for us, and gave it to the people of 
the village. We all thought that kind," the young 
woman stumblingly informs you with difficulty, so bad 
is her little English, of which she is very proud how- 
ever. 

"How will you live through this year?" 

"We have a field which my brother, who is only 
fifteen, and an old servant will cultivate. The Ger- 
mans have let us have two horses for plowing and 
other work." 

But this comes too pat; you are afflicted with the 
plague of suspicion. You wish one of these peasants 
spoke your tongue ; very well ! presto ! your desire is 
at hand. It is altogether too perfect. You will have 
none of it — these Germans have overdone it, you feel; 
and you experience a sensation of resentment. You 
are offended that they should impose upon your intel- 
ligence. But subsequent occurrences make it appear 
not improbable that you are oversuspicious. 

For a similar incident two days later could not possi- 
bly have been "arranged." Your interpreter, speaking 
many tongues, is with you on this second occasion — 




German officers watching effect of artillery duel before Arras, 
France, January 8, 1915. "The harsh but not repellent crash of 
the cannon's barbaric orchestration." In the French village 
below the people are going about their daily affairs as if nothing 
unusual were happening. 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 35 

you have brought him from America and know his 
rehabihty — he is of excellent American family in your 
own town. (And let no investigator go to all the 
warring countries without such a dependable aid un- 
less he, himself, speaks all the languages.) 

You are passing through the only place in France 
where, as you are told, savagery has been practised on 
German wounded — seventy disabled soldiers lying 
helpless in the town hall were murdered you are in- 
formed. Their graves are near the outskirts, marked 
with simple wooden crosses. 

As a punishment and a warning against such prac- 
tises in the future, the Germans shelled the village, 
having first told the inhabitants to leave temporarily. 
The Germans think the murders were committed by 
ruffians and acquit the general French population of 
the crime. But they will have no more of it, no mat- 
ter who did the deed. 

You are making photographs of the ruins. One 
picturesque point can only be had from the upper win- 
dows of an opposite building. The German officers 
have no idea of what you wish or mean to do. A 
French family, minus its men, is lodged within. The 
mother gives you permission and, the photograph suc- 
cessfully taken, you talk with her. She holds a child, 
two or three years old, on her lap. 

She admits she was terrified before the Germans 
came; but they have treated her and everybody well, 
she informs you, and she fears them no longer. The 
soldiers like her little girl especially, she says. One 
stopped and had supper with them once, and after- 
ward played with the child for a long time. When 



36 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

he went away they thought of course that they would 
never see him again — so many soldiers pass through 
their village! They were sorry for this, for they 
liked him. 

A week later the little girl was playing on the door- 
step when suddenly she gave a joyous cry at the sight 
of a passing German soldier, and held out her arms 
to him. It was her friend of the week before who 
was looking for the house where his tiny playmate 
lived. He wanted to see her again, and have a romp 
with her— she was like his own little girl back in Ger- 
many ! So, no, indeed, they did not fear the Germans 
any more— nobody in that town did, the child's mother 

said. 

This incident could not have been "fixed up" or 
"staged" by any possibihty. 

Once more that day a chance event bears the same 
testimony. Nobody could have foreseen it. The sheer- 
est accident brings it to your attention. It happens in a 
town some thirty miles southeast of Lille, France, 
through which your auto is speeding. In an elevated 
garden, the stone wall of which is a few feet above the 
street, is a row of German soldiers. They are con- 
valescing from wounds and almost fit for the firing- 
line once more. On the sidewalk beneath are a score of 
French children. 

Between the soldiers and the children a sort of frolic 
is going forward. The soldiers are throwing bits of 
chocolate to the children, calling out to them endearing 
names, and the little ones are accepting and reciprocat- 
ing both. So conspicuous is the mutual friendliness 
that, although your automobile is more than an hour 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 17 

late on a schedule to Grand Headquarters, you yet per- 
sist in turning back for a little while to get kodak pic- 
tures of this comradery between the invaders and the 
children of the invaded. 

But let us return to our trip to the batteries. 

We draw near Arras, France, the town you had seen 
from the tower. It is still held by the French, whom 
the Germans have not yet been able to dislodge. 

"We had better stop the auto here," remarks the 
adjutant as we come near the top of a slight elevation 
in the road. "They can see us in a moment more, and 
they might shell us." 

So along the road we go on foot, down the gentle 
slope. Broad it is, and well made, beautifully bor- 
dered with poplars. 

At the foot of the long easy hill, toward the town, a 
house is burning. German soldiers are extinguish- 
ing the flames. Across the road are three semi-under- 
ground, big rooms, where the soldiers from trench and 
battery spend their time when not at the guns or on 
the firing-line. The roofs are hidden by growing vege- 
tation, like that of the surrounding fields. 

"Let us go to a battery now," said the major-adju- 
tant, making his rounds; and across beet fields we 
walk, the heavens above and about us clamorous 
with thunder not native to the skies. You note a 
wooden cross at the head of a mound, and then an- 
other; and you recall that you have seen many of these, 
but have not especially marked them, so strident was 
the call of interest to more insistent things. 

They locate the spot where German soldiers, officers 
and men alike, now sleep and will forever sleep. But 



38 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

why so few ? For you are treading the soil of a battle- 
field where thousands fell not so very long ago. You 
find that each of these crosses is not for the grave of 
one man, but for many, for very, very many. 

Again the psychology of life triumphing in thought 
and feeling over death; for these graves do not op- 
press nor shock — they seem a matter of course — and 
live men are by your side and about you the fertile 
soil with its prophecy of harvest to sustain yet more 
life! 

The fields are sown with metal testimony of the 
battle ; you pick up two conical objects, fuses which 
exploded shells, and put them in your pocket to carry 
home. 

"What are those two men?" you ask, pointing to 
two soldiers standing behind a mound of earth. 

"Range finders for the battery," is the answer. "We 
shall be there in a moment." 

"What battery?" 

"The one before you ! Don't you see it?" 

"No; ril be hanged if I do!" and your unpractised 
eye does not detect the guns twenty yards away. 

"Why, there it is — right in front of you!" 

Then you do observe three pits, but see no guns as 
yet ; and you think these the entrance to another type of 
underground soldiers' villa. But you walk forward 
and soon touch the bulky breeches of the cannon. The 
pits, or holes, for these particular pieces are perhaps 
three feet deep and may be twelve by twelve in length 
and breadth. A narrow passage ten feet in length 
leads to an underground chamber where the men 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 39 

sleep and rest when not serving their weapons. It is 
not uncomfortable. 

This underground room and, of course, the gun 
itself are so carefully covered over with poles, ever- 
green, earth and vegetation that one walking toward 
the battery might actually fall into the excavation be- 
fore seeing that he was near artillery. But as no bullet 
sped by you when in the trenches, so no shell falls near 
you now. While you are glad that they do not, still 
you do not think very much about it — you wonder 
more whether a picture you are trying to take with 
your kodak will develop; for the day is dark, and a 
slight drizzle has been falling since noon. 

But you do wish that the battery would get into ac- 
tion; you would like to have that experience at least. 
And just as you are thinking this — 

"Will you please stand a little this way?" politely 
asks the battery commander. "You are in the way 
of the range finders," he explains. 

You step back, and almost before you fully take in 
the fact, the gunners are in machine-like activity. A 
shell is thrust home. 

"Hands to your ears !" a voice says. The discharge 
takes place. 

"You remember the ruined brick house you saw 
from the tower? Some of the enemy have just en- 
tered it ; that is where that shell went," you are told. 

"But why don't they shoot at us ? This controversy 
seems to be going on all about us, from right to left, 
over our heads, or in front of us. How does it happen 
that no shells fall here ?" 



40 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Our French friends have not yet located this bat- 
tery. They have no idea that these guns are here. 
They know that there is an unlocated battery, but they 
have not found it." 

"But they will find you in the end ! Suppose they 
found you now?" 

"Oh, well, of course in that case! But that is not 
probable to-day. This battery has been here a fort- 
night, and they have not yet searched us out." 

The noncommissioned officer in charge of the gun, 
who crawls with you into the earthen chamber just 
described, speaks English. He learned it in Mom- 
basa and other places where he has served as a com- 
mercial agent. He is now a small merchant on his 
own account. 

To the remark that he and all the men appear to be 
in fine physical condition, content and even happy, he 
answers that their physical fitness is due largely to 
plenty of excellent food and to the care taken of them. 
As to their cheerful appearance, he says that the men 
think they are doing well for Germany, and that is 
enough, he thinks, to make any German happy. 

"Also," he remarks, "there is not a man of us com- 
mon soldiers who does not know exactly what we are 
fighting for." 

"And may I ask what you are lighting for, then?" 
you flash back at him with unguarded impoliteness. 

His eyes blaze. "Fiir Deutschland!" The words 
bark at you with penetrating intentness, which has 
made him relapse into the German tongue in his 
emotion. "For the life of the German nation!" pick- 
ing up his English again. "Yes, and for our lives, 




"WTiy do the French not fire here ? They have not yet found 
these guns. Standing by a concealed German battery in an open 
field about one and a half miles before Arras, France, January 
8th, 1915. The captor of Lille, Major Adjutant von Xy lander 
of the 6th Army in centre. Lively cannonading all around. 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 41 

too, and the lives of our wives and children — our 
means of earning our livelihood." 

"How long will the war last?" you venture to in- 
quire. Equally prompt and spirited comes the answer, 
his already military straight figure stiffening into yet 
more rigid erectness. 

"Till Germany wins ! Till England is beaten !" 

"But do you not want to go home?" 

"Yes, of course, but not until Germany wins, not 
until England is beaten !" 

And the guns go on roaring, the shells go on ex- 
ploding, and nothing really happens. 

"What a waste of ammunition !" you remark. 

"Quite true. But the French are wasting most of 
it, and most of it is neutral ammunition from neutral 
America," An officer is speaking now, and he smiles 
as he whips out his stinging jest. And yet no jest, 
for already you have learned that it is a serious con- 
viction of German officers, German soldiers, German 
scholars, German business men, German working men 
at the front. 

Again by dififerentiating sound and direction and 
plying questions based on these, you learn that, as in 
the case of rifle firing in the morning, so in artillery 
work the French are firing many times to the Ger- 
mans' once. This does not mean that the Germans 
are not prodigal of their powder; for while they are 
infinitesimally economical of everything, they are not 
parsimonious in ammunition. 

"It is with the guns the same thing that I told you 
this morning about the rifle firing," patiently re-ex- 
plains the officer who was with you in the trenches 



42 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

shortly after dawn. "It is a question of temperament, 
delicate nerves and a supersensitive imagination on the 
one side and strong nerves and a matter-of-fact im- 
agination on the other side. Our French friends 
shoot when they think they see something — a shadow 
is enough; or when they imagine something which 
does not exist. 

"That means they are firing almost all the time. 
But our men shoot only when they really do see some- 
thing to shoot at, or when we have figured out care- 
fully, and on a basis of fact, locations and movements. 
At bottom this fundamental difference will be the de- 
ciding factor in this war — the physical basis, plus edu- 
cation, and both of these plus spirit, and all of these 
plus faith." 

Strolling back to the auto, you come upon a field 
kitchen on its journey of refreshment to the men whom 
you have just left and their comrades — an enormous 
kettle, holding gallons upon gallons, its vast lid screwed 
tightly down; a slight fire burning in the oven be- 
neath it; a stovepipe rising from its front; the whole 
set on wheels and making a large-sized iron wagon. 
Two broad horses draw this field kitchen. Fat and 
sleek these horses are. 

The kitchen stops at command; the kettle's lid is 
unscrewed, and some of the contents ladled out for 
your sampling, after the cautious cook, with culinary 
pride, tastes it himself. It is thick pea soup with meat 
— hot and steaming. It appeals to the palate You 
like it better than the food at the officers' mess. 

As you leave the batteries you begin to speculate 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 43 

about the seeming absence of real danger. No living 
creature could be more anxious than you not to be 
hurt and yet you would like to know whether you have 
been in possible peril. You voice the thought. 

"Don't worry about that," your officer-host reas- 
sures you. "Any one any place under fire is always in 
possible danger. Still, it is not great here and certainly 
not worth thinking about; you will understand this if 
you will reflect upon the number of shots fired for 
every man that is killed or even hurt. Yet," said he, 
"it is chance, mere chance. For example, a few days 
ago one of our men was riding near where we have 
been to-day. It just happened that a shell fell when and 
where his horse was ambling along. Well! But that 
only occurs once in ten thousand times; yet in the ten 
thousandth case it does transpire." 

"Then it might have happened to us," you exclaim. 

"Why, of course. There was, as I say, the ten 
thousandth chance. But here we are. Still, of 
course, the whole thing is chance. No man can tell 
where he will be standing, walking or riding when a 
shell or bullet comes." 

The flying auto takes you miles upon miles to an- 
other point. At two villages there are stops for inspec- 
tion duty. The streets are filled with soldiers. Again the 
robust wholesome appearance of the men thrusts it- 
self toward you like a great, strong, hearty hand; 
again, too, the good humor of the faces astonishes — 
you had expected hardship's shrunken bodies and faces 
pinched by despair and privation. 

Now you pass a marching company, most of them 



44 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

grinning, some laughing outright — evidently the com- 
pany humorist has cracked a joke. Once more the 
same vitality, the same lusty color of lip and cheek. 

Here you pass a large number of soldiers equipped 
in a manner you had not observed before. Some have 
spades, some axes, several carry boards, a number 
have picks, all kinds of tools and implements for dig- 
ging and building are in the hands of these men. They 
belong to the engineering corps, you are informed; 
they are what the veterans of our Civil War would 
call "sappers and miners." They are trudging rapidly 
onward. Their faces are grave. You note this with 
surprise, for all the other soldiers you have seen or 
will see in the next two days are of pleasant counte- 
nance. You remark upon the serious look these men 
wear. 

"A good thing, too," responds the officer in the seat 
beside you. "For they have serious work before them. 
They are to do the severest labor perhaps under heavy 
fire and can do no firing themselves. Most of them 
are trained engineers and all are high-spirited men. I 
would be glum myself if I had to toil while being shot 
at and could not answer shot for shot." 

There is a grating rumble just ahead, and in a mo- 
ment you overtake and are passing a procession of 
little square wagons, all but two drawn by six big 
horses. On each off horse sits a soldier, his rifle 
slung across his back ready for use. There are twenty 
of these wagons. It is an ammunition train, going 
where it is needed. 

The end of the day has come, and you turn into an 
open space by the side of the road. 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 45 

"Let us have some cheese and crackers," remarks 
the corps commander's aide. While you are standing, 
eating, darkness falls upon you like a black cloak. 
Although you have not been out of the sound of small 
arms or cannon the whole day long, yet you turn your 
head sharply as just behind you, beyond some trees, 
the crackle of heavy infantry fire breaks out. 

You are in no danger, however, for although only a 
few yards away, it is the German rifles that are speak- 
ing, and the French lead will not come in your direc- 
tion. Still there is enough shooting to give interest — 
several hundred men are pulling triggers just across a 
small field on the other side of the road. 

Then, quite as suddenly, you wheel about at an un- 
familiar series of explosions of a regularity you have 
not heard before, and you see at no great distance 
little spurts of fire so rapid that they seem almost a 
continuous flame, darting out like the red tongues of 
legendary serpents. Machine guns these, but directed 
at an angle from where you stand; so again there is 
no danger, and again nothing really happens. 

Through the darkness now the rushing auto makes 
top speed. "Armee Oherkommando!" shouts the ma- 
jor-adjutant to the frequent sentries, and on you 
plunge again. Through a large town you pass, and 
on inquiry learn that it is one of the two biggest min- 
ing towns of France; and this leads to the discovery 
that the Germans occupy much the greater part of 
France's coal-mining district. 

Here is another physical resource which that part of 
the republic occupied by the Germans is yielding the 
conquerors. Important items, these, and you reflect 



46 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

that these French fields are, to a considerable extent, 
feeding the German army now in France. 

You have sampled a portion of the line where the 
French oppose the Germans, and now you would have 
a look at another region, where the English front the 
German guns. Next day, then, you go to Comines, 
France, and beyond on the road to Ypres. Just across 
the Belgian border are battery headquarters for this 
artillery section. The vast noise of the cannon satu- 
rates the atmosphere with a steady and mighty sound. 

"Will you have a look at Messines before going to 
the batteries?" asks a young artillery captain. 

Of course you will ! You are standing in a little 
space surrounded on all sides save one by quaint old 
buildings. At an order, some soldiers begin throwing 
brush from a great contrivance on wheels standing in 
a corner, and push it forward. The brush is to hide 
this object from the enemy's aeroplanes and their im- 
pertinent bombs. 

This mechanism looks like a heavy field piece of un- 
usual length, and you imagine that it is. But the 
muzzle is elevated until the instrument is perpendicu- 
lar ; and you think that they are going to shoot at a foe 
of the skies. A wheel is turned and the curious crea- 
tion elongates itself many feet in the air. There is a 
quick adjustment at the base, and: "Look, please!" 

Stooping to put your eye to the lens, before you is 
the Belgian town for which the English and Germans 
are struggling. The supposed big gun turns out to be 
the most modern and powerful of those field tele- 
scopes used by the Germans in this war ! 

Toward the batteries pouring their mammoth hail 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 47 

at the English position you make your way. You pass 
a great circular pit in the earth like an inverted cone, 
twenty feet across and half as deep. A British shell 
did that the day before. Alongside the road one of 
the double row of bordering trees, perhaps fourteen 
inches in diameter, is broken, its upper half hanging 
to the earth. The break is a shatter of splinters. 
Yonder is another tree riven exactly like the first, and 
a little farther on, still another. The rending in the 
body of these trees seems almost at the same height 
from the ground. Work of the English shells. 

And so you walk on to a German battery, whose 
guns are precisely like those you examined yesterday, 
but not nearly so well concealed. This battery is not 
in action for some reason — perhaps the guns are "rest- 
ing." Great piles of shells are under a covering, well 
concealed from the side toward the enemy — they are 
ready for use at a moment's notice, as are the guns 
and indeed the men themselves, who are standing 
about, in easy preparedness, waiting for the telephone 
command. What if a shell were to fall in that store 
of ammunition! But you do not think of this until 
afterward. 

A little way to your right, and in plain view, an- 
other battery is in rapid action. The English guns 
are answering shot for shot. Farther off, perhaps a 
mile away, a house bursts into flames. "That is an 
English shell," explains one of the officers. And al- 
most as he speaks, another house, near the first one, 
begins to burn, also fired by a British naval gun, for 
these are warship ordnance, you learn, doing shore 
duty. 



48 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

And so the labor of war goes on. Above and about 
you sound the prolonged w-h-i-n-n-n-g-g-g of the fly- 
ing messengers of death. The sound of them is not 
unpleasant ; indeed, their voices are distinctly musical. 
You wonder why some great composer has not writ- 
ten the song of the shell. 

Such are average examples of the battle front 
in this part of France in January of 1915. Not many 
charges or rushes across open spaces, although there 
are a few of these, here and there, along the hundreds 
of miles extending from the sea southward into 
France. The steady rains, the overflowing streams, 
the flooded low places, the deep and sticky mud — all 
discourage infantry attack or cavalry operations. 

You have felt that downpour, you have seen that 
surplus water, you have walked a great deal through 
that mud yourself, and you understand the physical 
difficulty leadening the feet of soldiers rushing a hos- 
tile trench. But when the rains let up and the overflow 
recedes, and the ground becomes firm, there will be 
another story. 

"It looks to an uninformed civilian as though it 
will be hard for the Allies to oust you from your posi- 
tion," you observe. 

"Oust us ! They will never dislodge us ! Oust us ! 
Oust us ! ! We shall advance !" snaps back a Ger- 
man officer, one of the best informed soldiers of a 
certain famous corps. And when he explains how 
this can be done without great loss it seems simple 
enough. Suffice it to say that the major premise of 
this syllogism of expected victory is temperament and 
the physical basis. On these the rain and snow and 



GERMAN TRENCH AND BATTERY 49 

mud, the waiting and the rifle pit, the bombardment 
and the scream of shell are having their effect. 

And so the world waits upon the convenience of 
the seasons, when the soil shall be made solid for sac- 
rifice. Then, out of the equation of nerves and tem- 
perament, what event will come forth? Sate yourself 
with speculation. Prophesy as you like. One man's 
opinion Is as good as another's, no doubt. Proclaim, 
if you wish, that the outcome is on the knees of the 
gods. 

But the German soldier thinks that he knows — he 
knows that he knows. His blood, his life — what is 
that to him? "Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein," he 
murmurs in trench or battery pit, and sleeps peacefully 
and is content. 



Ill 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND TWO OF HIS FIGHTING 
CHIEFS* 

*'TF it will be convenient for you to delay your de- 
X parture, the Emperor will receive you this after- 
noon," politely said a young officer attached to the 
Imperial Foreign Office. Booted and spurred, clad 
in service uniform, with sword at side, the bearer of 
this message strode hurriedly into the restaurant at 
the railroad station, where most of the officers at the 
Grand Headquarters take their meals. We were at 
luncheon, and the train was in the station, its starting 
time within less than five minutes. By so narrow a 
margin did this good fortune arrive! 

I had suggested to the Chancellor of the Empire, 
Von Bethmann-Hollweg, at the end of our conversa- 
tion the evening before, that it would be a pleasant cir- 
cumstance for me if I might meet the Emperor before 
leaving Germany. It was by the merest chance that the 
favorable result came so quickly, or at all; for the 
Emperor has not received any foreigner since the war 
began; he is at the front practically all of the time, and 
while, in Germany, all connected with the war are in- 
cessantly busy with systematic and methodical pur- 

* Written at Berne, Switzerland, February 4, 1915. 

50 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 51 

pose, yet the German Emperor himself is the hardest 
worked man in the whole Fatherland. 

Endless conferences and consultations, all of them 
of the most serious moment, on a great variety of sub- 
jects, call upon him for immense and never-ceasing 
labor. Then, too, he is constantly in and out of head- 
quarters, speeding now to this point and now to that, 
or going about the country long since occupied by the 
German army, and now governed by German admin- 
istration. 

Even the unsympathetic must admit that William II 
is at his task all the time. From one of these journeys, 
it appeared, the Emperor had just returned; and thus 
came the lucky opportunity of meeting this extraordi- 
nary personage, the most widely discussed, the most 
violently abused and most highly praised of living men 
throughout the world. 

Ten minutes past two in the afternoon was the time 
when I was requested to go to the temporary offices of 
the Chancellor of the Empire. After some moments 
of conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
Von Jagow, whom I had seen for an hour that morn- 
ing, the Emperor's aide accompanied me to the garden 
where the Emperor was walking with the Chancellor. 
At exactly fifteen minutes before three o'clock I was 
presented to His Majesty. 

Nothing could have been more informal than this 
meeting, and no one is or could be more democratic 
in manner than was this so-called "war lord" — a title, 
by the way, which runs back into the legendary Teu- 
tonic history of the Germanic tribes in their ancient 
forests; and a title, therefore, which is thoroughly 



52 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

misunderstood and grotesquely misrepresented by the 
non-German world of the present day. 

Contrary to American opinion, there is nothing 
pompous, nothing even pretentious in the bearing of 
William H — certainly nothing of the kind appeared 
on this occasion. The Emperor's manner was the 
opposite of the ostentatious; it was plain, straight- for- 
ward and frank. One's first impression is that of a 
strong man who is also a pleasant, simple-mannered 
gentleman, with an agreeable personality, charged with 
that engaging quality called magnetism. 

One's second impression, following so quickly upon 
the first that the two are almost one, is that of im- 
mense vigor, abounding physical vitality and search- 
light mental alertness. With it all, you are instantly 
put at your ease, although indeed the psychological 
atmosphere is not that of apprehension. There is in 
the Emperor's demeanor none of that stiff reserve 
with which so many public men cloak their own fear 
of themselves, not a vestige of that stilted manner so 
frequently used as a substitute for dignity. 

The Emperor wore the simple uniform of the field, 
and about his shoulders hung the long gray fur-lined 
cloak, pictured so often in his photographs. His cap 
was the familiar headgear of the German officer. The 
Imperial Chancellor was clad in khaki-colored uni- 
form, with boots and cap. There was a notable ab- 
sence of decorations — so much so that, although one 
or two may have been worn, they did not impress 
themselves upon the mind. I was dressed exactly as 
I was when visiting the trenches and batteries, whence 
I had just come. 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 53 

For two hours the conversation continued. I men- 
tion the length of time only because of the perfect op- 
portunity it gave to observe the German Emperor and 
because so long a walk and conversation, after a hard 
forenoon's work, was something of a test of his phys- 
ical endurance. 

We walked during the whole of this time in the 
inclosed garden which is a part of the villa occupied 
by the Emperor in the French town where the Grand 
Headquarters were then located, a town, by the way, 
within half an hour's automobile ride from Sedan. 
The pathway of gravel was a long oval. Here and 
there clumps of trees beautified the grounds. A high 
wall, vine-covered, protected the garden in the rear. It 
was a gray day, the sky blanketed with leaden clouds ; 
and the atmosphere was chill and damp. 

His Majesty was within a little more than two weeks 
of his fifty-seventh birthday. He did not look older 
than his age suggests. The mustache was gray and 
the hair almost white ; the gray-blue eye was clear, its 
expression intense and full of nervous force. I had been 
credibly informed that it is a mannerism of the Em- 
peror to look at you piercingly for a space before 
speaking, but nothing of the kind occurred. The eye 
does have a penetrating quality; but if this experience 
was a fair test, the staring stories are untrue. 

The complexion was pale with a faint tinge of color; 
the lips healthfully red. Under the eyes were wrinkles, 
but not more nor different than one sees on the faces 
of most active men of the Emperor's age. The features 
were not full, as shown by portraits of a year ago; 
still less were they haggard, as they appear in photo- 



54 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

graphs taken soon after the war began. The face was 
lean, rugged, wholesome. 

The voice was vibrant and strong, without the faint- 
est trace or suggestion of weakness or nervous ex- 
haustion. The step was firm, decided, but not over- 
rapid; and at no time was there the slightest indica- 
tion of weariness. The carriage was erect, elastic, vig- 
orous. 

While physically as well as mentally the Emperor 
showed extraordinary animation, there was a calmness 
and steadiness that surprised because of the descrip- 
tions to the contrary so universally published in 
America. 

Such was William H, on the afternoon of January 
11, 1915. Yet only a short time before I had 
read that he was broken down physically, that he was 
fatally ill, that he was a nervous wreck, and even that 
his mind was affected by the world catastrophe of 
which he is the central figure. I am, of course, not a 
medical observer ; but from my youth I have seen hard 
worked men in every state from perfect fitness of body, 
nerve and mind, to a condition of physical exhaustion 
and nervous collapse. 

From this experience in practical life, if I had to do 
with a man, as friend or foe, who looked, acted and 
talked as the German Emperor did on the occasion I 
have described, I should count such a man a powerful 
force, with physical resources unimpaired, with mental 
strength at its height. 

I say nothing about the Emperor's appearance at any 
former time, for I do not know, personally ; nor yet at 
any subsequent time, for again I do not know, per- 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 55 

sonally ; but I do say that the above is a faithful and if 
anything a moderate description of WiUiam II of Ger- 
many, on January 11, 1915, for I do know, personally. 
If this be his usual state, and in Germany I have not 
heard to the contrary, his adversaries should not de- 
ceive themselves ; for they confront a powerful man, in 
the maturity of his strength. 

The Emperor's personality is a composite of the 
engaging and impressive, the attractive and compel- 
ling. One instantly forgets the station he holds in 
one's interest in the man. The mind is brilliant and 
stored with an amazing fund of information on ap- 
parently every subject. His careful and extensive 
education, of which so much has been written, is evi- 
dent; his trained intellect has explored surprisingly 
wide fields of knowledge. It is impossible to think of 
William II as ever being dull for an instant ; and one 
can not conceive of his being uninformed upon any 
matter of large statesmanship coming to his attention 
or likely to be brought before him. It is asserted by 
his admirers and sometimes conceded by his detractors, 
even in hostile countries, that the Emperor is the most 
thoroughly educated of all European statesmen. 

Also, from personal contact one can not honestly 
doubt the Emperor's sincerity. And the accounts of 
his deeply religious nature are so plainly true, that the 
impartial observer does not even question them. The 
impression of cleanliness in mind, character and con- 
duct is irresistible and increasing. One can not imagine 
this successor of the Great Frederick as thinking basely 
himself, or tolerating it from another. One can con- 
ceive of his being impulsive, stern, dominant, aggress- 



56 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ive, masterful, but never as being colorless, vapid, 
weak-kneed, hypocritical or cowardly.* 

And it was universally asserted in Germany by 
friend and former foe (for at this writing the Em- 
peror has no opponents in his own country) that Will- 
iam n was devoted to peace above all things, except 
the safety of the German people. "There is no ques- 
tion that the Emperor did not want this. war," said a 
German Socialist who in the past has bitterly opposed 
the Emperor and who even now agrees with William H 
only in carrying on the war until Germany wins. "I 
am fair enough," said he, "to concede that undoubtedly 
the Emperor's one great ambition was to close his 
reign without war. I believe that he wished ~ to be 
known as the peace Emperor." 

In Germany itself, comparatively few if any can 
be found who believe the contrary. Many say that the 

* The following — one of many similar descriptions — may inter- 
est the reader: I inquired of the officer in charge of the civil 
government of the French city where the German Grand Head- 
quarters were located at the time of my visit, about the personal 
characteristics of the Emperor. "He has so many character- 
istics," answered this civil municipal governor, who spoke Eng- 
lish as well as any American. "From my own experience," con- 
tinued he, "I should say that the chief element of the Emperor's 
character is kindness. I have had an unusual opportunity to ob- 
serve His Majesty. I report to him very frequently — sometimes 
every day — concerning conditions here. In this intimate contact 
I have found that the Emperor's predilection for kindness is 
even greater than his sense of justice which, as you know, of 
course, is very rigid. 

"For instance," continued the officer, "here is a little personal 
fact not known to the world and which probably never will be 
known to the world: If His Majesty can be said to take any 
relaxation at all in these times, he takes it in this fashion — if he 
has an unemployed hour he likes to ride out through the country 
and find those who are in need of help or sympathy and then to 
afiford them the craved-for comfort or aid." 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 57 

Emperor had three opportunities to wage successful 
war against each of the countries now in arms against 
Germany. 

It is said that Russia would have been helpless before 
a German onslaught at the time of the Russo-Japanese 
War ; that an ideal opportunity to strike England was 
when she was engaged in the Boer War; that Germany 
would have had distinct military advantage over France 
when the Matter was embarrassed with military diffi- 
culties in Africa; but that in each instance the Em- 
peror declined to act although, some Germans say, 
other nations urged him to strike in two of these cases. 

However this may be, one who tries to hold the 
balance of judgment fair and true is inclined, from 
personal study of the Emperor, to think that his nat- 
ural tendencies are strongly toward peace. But there 
can be no question that now that his hand has been 
set to the plow, he will not turn back until the fur- 
row has been run. In this he faithfully reflects German 
feeling and purpose. When, at the outbreak of hos- 
tilities, the Emperor said, "To the last man and the 
last horse," he undoubtedly meant every word of it 
and he expressed in that now historic phrase the de- 
liberate resolve of the German nation. 

This sketch is to bring the German Emperor to the 
understanding of the American mind, and is put in 
terms of Americanism, just as if describing an Ameri- 
can public man. Disagree with him if you jvill; but 
remember that if you were to meet the Emperor 
casually, without knowing who he is, you would like 
him immensely; and this liking would be a sure step 
to respecting his character and admiring his ability. 



58 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

It will be useful to the American reader who thinks 
the coloring of this picture too pronounced, if he will 
reflect that to the German eye it will appear pale and 
unappreciative. To the Emperor's supporters, among 
the German people, and at the present moment this 
means the German nation, this estimate will seem small 
and cold. There are those in Germany who dislike the 
Emperor even now ; but even these are with him to the 
uttermost in the terrific crisis now threatening Ger- 
many's life; and the masses of the people at the date 
of this writing, February, 1915, are devoted to him 
with a fervent and limitless loyalty and love. 

These facts are mentioned in order that the Ameri- 
can reader may be advised that what I have here set 
down is not an overstatement but, on the contrary, 
reserved and guarded and far within the limits of the 
truth. When this is understood, it will be plain, even 
to the prejudiced, that much which has been written 
and spoken of this great man has been penned or ut- 
tered in ignorance or malice. 

THE emperor's MASTER FIGHTERS 

/ — Grand Admiral von Tirpits 

Let us now consider the personality and listen to the 
words of Germany's two supreme fighting leaders in 
the eye of the world for the hour; the two men whose 
mental power and force of character have made them 
in their respective spheres, under the Emperor, the 
dominating figures of the immediate day in the con- 
duct of the war — one upon the sea; the other upon 
the land. 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 59 

Although enormously exceeded by the British navy 
in number of ships and guns, yet the daring and ef- 
fectiveness of the German navy, from the heroic career 
of the Emden to the intrepid and skilful audacity of 
submarine U 21, have appealed to the imagination of 
the world; and now the submarine blockade of the 
British Isles brings Germany's naval activities upon the 
stage in dramatic climax. 

The war" has been full of the unexpected, and what 
surprises the future holds no man can prophesy. But 
judging to-morrow by yesterday, it would seem to 
be not improbable that on the face of the waters and in 
their depths are to be played yet other scenes in this 
mightiest drama of history of which no one, save 
the master playwrights, have yet dreamed.* 

Perhaps the sea, to which romance has been restored 
by ingenuity and dash, will witness no more than repe- 
titions of what has already been enacted; but perhaps 
the ocean is to behold yet new wonders made possible 
by the mind and heart of man — the brain which can 
invent, the wall which essays all hazards. 

Letters to Grand Admiral von Tirpitz from friends 
in America (none of whom, by the way, is pro-Ger- 
man) assured a hearty welcome from this remarkable 
man who, under the Emperor, is the constructive mind 
in the making of the German navy, and in outlining 
Germany's sea plans. 

Grand Admiral von Tirpitz lived at the time the 
following conversation occurred in the house of what 
was said to be a wealthy Frenchman, in the town 
where the Grand Headquarters then were located. The 

♦Written February 4, 1915. 



60 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

dwelling is not overlarge, but well furnished and with 
many of those evidences of refinement which one ex- 
pects in the surroundings of cultivated French people. 
Paintings adorn the walls, and a life-sized bust of a 
French officer in the uniform and cap of forty years 
ago stands proudly on its pedestal. 

In one corner of the room is a large grand piano, 
its top partly covered with drapery. Upon the 
piano are several framed photographs. They are pic- 
tures of members or friends of the family to which the 
house belongs. No single thing appears to have been 
disturbed ; and when the absent French family return, 
all will be found precisely as it was left, if the ap- 
pearance of the drawing-room is any safe indication. 
Other rooms, it was learned, have been converted into 
offices. Otherwise, the house remains exactly as it 
was when its occupants fled before the oncoming Ger- 
mans. 

Grand Admiral von Tirpitz is a powerful man, 
physically and mentally. He is above six feet in height, 
well proportioned, with a slight inclination to stout- 
ness. The head is very large and symmetrical in out- 
line; the face big featured and full; the dark eyes 
large and brilliant. A full, heavy, long, white beard, 
double-pointed, falls upon either breast. The carriage 
is very erect; the step quick and energetic; the ges- 
tures impulsive and dramatic. The uniform is dark 
blue, with the regulation bands of gold lace at the 
wrist, and without decorations. The Grand Admiral 
is in his slippers, for he has been hard at work — the 
only time, it appears, when he rests is when he is 
asleep ; for he has the German passion for toil. 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 61 

In his conversation, the chief of the German navy 
is ckar, simple, sometimes eloquent and all the time 
forcible. He speaks excellent English and his vo- 
cabulary is very large. He talked with unreserved 
frankness; and although an interview for publication 
was not intended as the purpose of the conversation, 
the Grand Admiral, at the end, heartily consented to 
be quoted. 

"1 am glad," said he, "that you have come to Ger- 
many to see conditions for yourself. We are all sorry 
and surprised that public sentiment in your country is 
so unfavorable to us. Germany and America were 
good friends, and the German people were very 
friendly to the American people, and we thought the 
feeling was reciprocated. Why has this changed?" 
he asked. 

I explained frankly, that it was felt in America that 
Germany was responsible for the war, and really be- 
gan it. 

"But why?" broke in Admiral von Tirpitz. "What 
had we to gain by beginning war? Commerce? No. 
Wealth? No. Happiness? No. The idea is against 
common sense ! Do Americans think that nearly sev- 
enty million people, who are noted for their thoughtful- 
ness, suddenly lost their heads? Such an idea is not 
only foolish, but monstrous ! We did not want war — 
did not expect it, could not believe it ! 

"Here is one little proof of this," continued the Ger- 
man admiral. "Our ships were abroad; many of our 
warships were in foreign ports; much of our vast 
merchant marine was far away in the harbors of every 
country — do you think that if we had planned the war, 



62 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

or even foreseen it, we should not have gotten all our 
ships home before war was declared? Would it not 
have been absurd to bring on a war without getting our 
ships home." 

"Then who did begin the war?" I asked. 

"On the surface and as a matter of open action, 
Russia began it; but at bottom, England is to blame. 
England was and is the moving spirit." 

"But why should England want to make war on 
Germany?" I asked. 

"You may see the reason in every trading port of 
the world, where Germans, by hard and careful work, 
are selling German goods where formerly English 
goods were sold," answered Grand Admiral von 
Tirpitz. "You may see it in German factories, busy 
making things for the world. You may see it in 
our wonderful industrial development. This growth 
of our commerce has crowded England. The whole 
world knows that she has long been jealous of German 
success and fearful for her own commerce, which was 
losing ground because we Germans worked harder, 
longer and had better system than our English com- 
petitors. But we must live, and we can do so only by 
industry, by making and selling things which the re- 
mainder of the world wants and needs. It was to 
break down German industry and commerce that Eng- 
land planned the conditions for the present war — 
everybody in Europe knows that! It is strange that 
Americans do not know it also!" 

"Your Excellency, you ask why Germany would be- 
gin war, and American public opinion think so," I re- 
marked. "There are many things that have caused 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 63 

Americans to think so. One of them concerns a prac- 
tice of the German navy. By books, articles, editorials, 
Americans have learned of the famous toast drunk by 
German naval men : 'To the Day !' Americans under- 
stand that, for years, German naval officers have drunk 
this toast to the day when Germany should be at war 
with England. What is the explanation of this toast 
*To the Day'?" I inquired. 

Admiral von Tirpitz leaned forward with eyes 
ablaze and said with all his force, though not loudly : 
"An infamous, English lie — that is the explanation ! 
It is an outright falsehood. I say, on my honor as a 
man and an officer that I never heard such a toast 
proposed, never drank such a toast, and never heard 
of such a toast being proposed or drunk! It is past 
belief that sensible people should believe such stuff! 
I can admire at least one thing English — their in- 
genuity in concocting falsehoods and putting them be- 
fore the world! The fact is that our officers frat- 
ernized with and were and are good friends of the 
officers of other nations. Especially did our officers 
try to be friendly with the officers of our neighbor, 
England. I am sure no honorable English officer will 
say otherwise, or will say that he ever heard that this 
ridiculous toast, 'To the Day,' was ever proposed or 
drunk, or that he knows any honorable man who says 
that he heard it. Every honorable English officer will 
tell you that it is a wretched lie." 

"Americans have been impressed with your build- 
ing of a powerful navy. It has been said that this 
was a preparation for war. Americans wonder why 
Germany should have rushed the building of a navy 



64 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

so rapidly, and spent so much money on it," I sug- 
gested. 

"But why not?" asked the German sea lord, in 
return. "Why does the United States buiki a navy? 
Or Japan? Or South American countries? Nobody 
objects to any other country building a navy; why do 
they object only to Germany's doing the same thing? 
Why are we singled out for suspicion and abuse? 
Why, when we, more than any one, have reason for a 
navy? 

"Think of our geographical position; think of our 
commerce — nearly every pound of it must pass under 
English guns, without any protection except the men- 
ace of our navy. In our position, would not your 
country build a navy ? Have you not built a big navy, 
although not so exposed as Germany is? 

"And," continued Germany's sailor-statesman, "what 
about England's navy — a double standard navy, ready 
to choke us or any other country in England's way? 
They talk about German 'militarism,' which does not 
exist — but what about England's maritimism, which 
does exist? Think of it! England's naval principle is 
that the English navy must be as large as those of any 
two other Powers combined; and this, too, although 
England is not so open to attacks as most other coun- 
tries. Yet England expects the world to agree to this, 
although it gives England command of the world. Sup- 
pose Germany insisted on the same principle on land. 
Suppose Germany maintained an army as large as the 
armies of any other two powers put together! Yet 
England does that very thing on the sea. Again I ask 
you — what about England's maritimism?" 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 65 

"But," said I, "England has a world wide com- 
merce to protect, and world wide possessions." 

"So has Germany a world wide commerce, which 
is growing faster than England's," retorted Grand 
Admiral von Tirpitz. "And Germany, too, has col- 
onies. Is England the only power entitled to com- 
merce and a navy to protect it ? Is England the only 
country which has the right to have colonies?" 

I mentioned Germany's violation of Belgian neu- 
trality as a decided source of unfavorable American 
public opinion. 

"Where," answered the Grand Admiral, "is a neu- 
trality which the supposed neutral country has itself 
destroyed? We believed Belgium had made an ar- 
rangement with France and England for mutual ac- 
tion against us in case of war. Perhaps we could not 
have proved it ; now we can prove it, and have proved 
it. And, if Belgium was to permit France and Eng- 
land to attack us through Belgian territory, should 
we have taken su'ch a chance ? Would you Americans 
have taken such a chance? It would have been mad- 
ness! It would have been criminal! Do not for- 
get our history — trampled over, fought over, for hun- 
dreds of years. And now we are fighting for our 
lives!" 

"Many in America think, Your Excellency, that 
Germany is fighting to dominate the world," I re- 
marked. 

"Another lie of England's!" shot back Grand Ad- 
miral von Tirpitz. "Dominate the world — how? By 
force ? We are not fools ! Do give us credit for that ! 
Dominate the world! It is — what do you say? Oh, 



66 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

yes — idiotic. What are the facts? We were doing 
very well — you grant us that?" 

And leaning forward, this extraordinary man 
pointed his finger. I remained silent. And again 
Grand Admiral von Tirpitz asked : 

"We were doing well, were we not — in industry and 
commerce; I ask you — what do you say?" 

"Yes, ver}^ well indeed — wonderfully well," I re- 
plied. 

"Well, then, we wished only to be let alone, so that 
we could go on doing well, and making well better if 
we could, by hard work and careful thought. We 
asked no advantage; we asked only the privilege to 
compete freely with other people, depending upon 
nothing except our industry and method for success. 
And you admit that we were succeeding not only in 
the ordering of our life here in Germany, but in world 
trade. We were succeeding in giving employment to 
our immense population, food for their mouths, cloth- 
ing for their backs, shelter over their heads. 

"The German people themselves did that," the 
Grand Admiral went on, "they had made themselves 
happy and prosperous by the old-fashioned methods 
of hard work, clean living and clear thinking. They 
were taking England's markets because Englishmen 
insisted on their vacations and week-ends and luxuries 
and sports. England could save these markets in one 
of two ways; by working and living as we live and 
work, or by crushing us. She chose to crush us. So 
it is life that we fight for — sheer physical existence; 
and we will fight to the end — and we will win. It is 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 67 

either victory or death with us ; and it will be victory. 
Let nobody make any mistake about that !" 

And here this giant of a man, physically as well as 
mentally, threw all his power into his words. 

"It has been said. Your Excellency, that you have 
suggested a submarine blockade of England."* 

"Well, why not?" came like a shot from a big gun. 
"Why not, I say? England is trying to starve us. She 
could not do that if we did not get a pound of provi- 
sions from other countries! But she is trying to do 
so. Are we not to retaliate? Why is it that what- 
ever England does seems all right to Americans, while 
they object to anything Germany does, of the same 
kind?" 

"But," I suggested, "a submarine blockade is not 
the same as an ordinary blockade, where merchant 
ships can be warned before sinking. But a submarine 
blockade gives the blockade runner no chance." 

"But what chance does a mine give the merchant 
ship ?" quickly exclaimed Germany's master sailor. "It 
gives less chance even than a submarine. If we de- 
cide upon a submarine blockade of England, we shall 
notify the w^orld. Yet England has sowed the North 
Sea and the Channel with mines, so as to shut us from 
the ocean and keep supplies away from us. These 
hundreds of mines give no warning." 

"But," I asked, "has not Germany sowed mines in 
the North Sea also? Our understanding in America 
is that England and Germany are even on that score." 



* The time of this conversation was the evening of January 
11, 1915. 



68 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Another gigantic English lie !" almost shouted Ger- 
many's first sailor, "We have not planted a single 
mine in the North Sea, except on the English coast 
and in English waters. What happened when nearly 
an hundred mines were washed ashore on the coast 
of Holland? Nearly all of them were English; not 
one was German! And yet they tell you that we 
sowed mines in the North Sea! Why should we? 
Would we want to blow up merchant ships carrying 
provisions to us? Would we want to help England 
in her attempt to strangle us ? 

"Again I say I am moved to admiration at Eng- 
land's colossal ability to invent falsehoods and then 
to get the world to listen to and believe them,^' said 
Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. "It is astonishing that 
you Americans, the shrewdest people in the world, 
should credit England's vStatement that we Germans 
do everything that is foolish and wicked, and nothing 
that is sensible and good ! The German citizens of 
your own country — are they not sensible people ? Are 
they not good people? Yet we are the same people!" 

"Our people of German descent are among the very 
best citizens we have. We have no better. We wish 
we had more of them," I replied. 

"Oh, is that why you are not neutral?" snapped 
back this keen-minded chief of the German navy. 
"You want more of our people for citizens? You 
know that if we are beaten you will get hundreds of 
thousands of them, which our industry and commerce 
now keep prosperously and happily here in Germany." 

"But, Your Excellency, we are neutral; we wish to 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 69 

be impartial and just, even in thought, as our Presi- 
dent has said," I remarked. 

"Neutral !" exclaimed this builder of Germany's sea 
power. "When you are sending provisions to Eng- 
land, France, Russia — and none to us ! Neutral ! 
When you are supplying our enemies with rifles, guns, 
ammunition — and selling none to us! Tell me" — and 
this mighty figure of a man rose to his feet, towering 
like an ancient viking, whose pictures he resembles — 
"do you call that neutrality?" 

"But, Your Excellency, the merchants and manu- 
facturers of a neutral nation may sell what they like 
to all belligerents, may they not?" I challenged. "The 
belligerent power buys and ships them at its own risk. 
If one warring country can get such goods into port 
and another can not, has the neutral nation violated 
neutrality by that course ?" 

"Technically, no; morally, yes," instantly replied 
the German naval chief. "That argument is what 
you call splitting hairs, I believe. Here is a great 
and friendly nation, millions of whose people are your 
own citizens; and the greatest and most unnatural 
combination of enemies in the history of the world is 
trying to crush that nation. That nation is fighting 
for its life; yet neutral America, which prides itself on 
justice, and despises technicalities, says that although 
Germany's location and this wicked combination of 
enemies surrounding her prevent her from getting pro- 
visions and munitions of war, for which she has the 
gold to pay — still America will supply Germany's ene- 
mies with food and powder and guns; but not Ger- 



70 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

many, upon the technicality that it is not America's 
fault if American goods can not reach Germany, and 
can reach Germany's enemies. We Germans think 
that this position is morally unfair. We think that it 
is not what you call a square deal." 

"But are you In need of provisions, of munitions of 
war?" I asked. 

"No; we have more than enough. We can neither 
be starved nor beaten. But the big point is that, by 
selling war materials and provisions to the Allies the 
United States are prolonging the war. H America 
would not send any more powder, guns and food to 
our enemies, this war would very soon be over. 

"Does America wish to take the responsibility for 
this?" exclaimed Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. "I 
wonder if the good people of the United States who 
talk about peace realize that by furnishing our enemies 
with the necessaries of war, America is actually keep- 
ing up the war. America could end it very quickly if 
she would." 

This conversation had gone on as a private exchange 
of views ; but so much that the Grand Admiral said was 
important that I asked him, as we were parting, 
whether he objected to my quoting him. 

"I do not object," he answered. "I most certainly 
do not. I shall be glad if you w^ill. Just submit it 
so that I may be sure and you may be sure that we 
have understood one another." 

It accordingly was submitted; and what is here set 
down is as Admiral von Tirpitz expressed it, and then 
afterward verified it. To make its accuracy certain, I 
requested that each page of the manuscript be stamped 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 71 

by the navy department. This was done, and the 
original is in my possession. 

// — Field Marshal von Hindenhurg 

The performances of the Germany army in the east 
have not only given General von Hindenhurg supreme 
command in that theater of the war, but with it also 
the title of Field Marshal, the highest distinction 
known to the German military establishment. In the 
big, barn-like, painfully modern building called Posen 
Schloss, Field Marshal von Hindenhurg has estab- 
lished the Grand Headquarters of the East, and sur- 
rounded himself by a staff of officers whose mastery 
of the art of war has attracted the attention of other 
nations, and won the unbounded confidence and en- 
thusiasm of the German people. Within the unlovely 
walls of this recently built castle throbs the collective 
brain which plans every movement, considers every 
condition along the immense battle line extending 
from the Baltic Sea to the Austrian stronghold of 
Cracow. Every one of these men has been chosen 
solely because of ability, effectiveness and devotion to 
his work. 

Field Marshal von Hindenhurg looks the Ideal sol- 
dier. He is a very large man, more than six feet tall, 
broad-shouldered, thick-chested, but not bulky in the 
waist. The immense stature, the huge frame, the im- 
pression of tremendous, steady, unyielding force 
which Von Hindenhurg gives you — all of these make 
him fit in well with the wide-spaced, lofty-ceilinged 
rooms and halls. 



72 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

The face is massive; the jaws remarkably broad 
and heavy ; the chin wide and with a sHghtly forward 
thrust. The big eyes are a clear gray; the mouth 
large and generous ; the lips firm to grimness, but for 
their great good humor and a trick of breaking into 
smiles. The eyes, too, twinkle with merriment; and 
indeed the "pile-driver" effect of the whole man is 
modified by the kindliness which rescues the granite- 
like features from a terrible sternness. One can well 
believe the stories of the fondness of children for Field 
Marshal von Hindenburg, who, it is said, has an equal 
liking for them. 

You get the impression, too, of supreme confidence 
in himself. Here is a man, you feel instinctively, who 
makes up his mind what he wants or wants to do, and 
then has no further doubt on the subject. It is the 
kind of self-confidence that inspires confidence in 
others. 

You can readily credit the report that he keeps 
his own counsel, even to the point of secretiveness ; 
it is said that only two officers know all of the plans 
of operations on the eastern front. These two of- 
ficers, who help devise those plans, are men whose 
brilliant work in the present war has already made one 
of them known to the German people, and the other 
to German military circles. Both of them, before fall 
comes, will be known to the world. 

Some say that it is doubtful if any one in Germany 
save the Emperor and these three men has the slight- 
est knowledge of what is to be done throughout the 
extended eastern field of hostilities. This is merely a 
form of expressing the secrecy of the Eastern Head- 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 73 

quarters; for, of course, the General Staff is fully ad- 
vised. 

Thus far Field Marshal von Hindenburg is the one 
popularly acknowledged military genius developed by 
this war. At the date of this writing, February 4, 
1915, the German people think him as great as the 
great Von Moltke; and his manner, appearance and 
deeds suggest a combination of Von Moltke and 
Bliicher. 

The Field Marshal was quite willing to answer 
questions, and each answer was like a shot from a 
great gun. 

**At bottom, who is responsible for this war? That 
is what America wants to know," I began. 

"England !" boomed the Field Marshal. 

"Why England?" 

"She was jealous. The English merchants made 
this war. It is a merchants' war — ^English mer- 
chants." 

"Most Americans think that Germany began the 
war because she declared war first," I suggested. 

"Germany did not begin it; Russia did," answered 
the Field Marshal. "Russia began mobilizing many 
weeks — a long time — before our Emperor ordered our 
mobilization, or thought of doing so. Russia was 
bringing Siberian troops to the German frontier. 
These troops from Siberia were coming. We said to 
Russia : 'What does this mean ?' Russia gave no an- 
swer. Then we asked her to stop. She would not 
stop. Then we asked England to stop her. England 
would not stop her. It was war. We had to strike ; 
we did strike." 



74 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"If it was Russia's action that caused war, why do 
you say that England was responsible?" I asked. 

"She could have stopped it," promptly responded 
Field Marshal von Hindenburg. "Russia would not 
have begun it if England had said, 'No.' But England 
wanted it. She thought that, with Russia and France 
to help her, she could kill Germany. We do not dis- 
like France, nor Russia either. We like the French. 
But England ! We hate England ! She is the cause." 

"It is said in America that there is a military party 
in Germany — " I started to say. 

"Foolish !" rumbled the Field Marshal, interrupting. 

"And that Germany's military party forced the 
war," I went on. 

"Foolish!" again clanged the Field Marshal — his 
voice was a mingling of amusement and disgust. He 
looked both. I could not repress a smile. 

"Is that the only answer?" I exclaimed. 

"Yes; foolish. There is no such thing." The fun 
in the Field Marshal's tone rescued it from a mighty 
growl. 

"Many think that Germany stands for militarism, 
and that the spirit of militarism caused the war," I 
observed. 

"I don't understand what you mean by that 'mili- 
tarism' — what is it?" Field Marshal von Hindenburg 
looked his mystification. 

I explained the American conception of militarism. 

"Nonsense," he answered good naturedly. "The 
German army is the German people. It had to be so, 
with Russia on one side and France on the other." 

"But although the people are the army, can not the 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 75 

government force the people into war without their 
consent?" I inquired. 

"Force the people? No!" exploded Germany's 
greatest fighting chieftain. "We could not fight a 
war as we are fighting this one if the people were not 
for it. It would not be practicable nor possible. It 
would not work."* 

"But in America this war is often called 'the 
Kaiser's war,' and not the people's war. How can 
that be?" I asked. 

"The German Emperor and the German people are 
one," exclaimed Field Marshal von Hindenburg. "Talk 
to our soldiers, or anybody in Germany, and you will 
find this is true." 

"America did not like Germany's violation of Bel- 
gium's neutrality," I remarked. 

"France had violated it already," said the Field 
Marshal ; "French officers and troops were across the 
Belgian frontier already. Belgium had violated this 
neutrality herself long ago. There was no neutrality 
left." 



* A German scholar had told me the same thing in Berhn. If 
the people were not for this war, all sorts of things would hap- 
pen," said he. Dr. Albert Siidekum, the Socialist leader, gave 
similar testimony. The railway service would break down here 
and there ; ammunition would not arrive ; the commissariat would 
be slow ; there would be no volunteers— many things would hap- 
pen and many others would not happen, etc. In short.^ according 
to German non-military men, the "military authorities" would be 
pretty helpless, after all, if the people were against the war. 
German business men bore the same testimony. "Why," said a 
banker. "I should like to know what we could do if the people 
refused to send their gold to the Reichsbank. And, if the people 
were opposed to the war, they would keep their hoardings in 
their stockings. Yet they have sent them to the bank for war 
purposes in an unprecedented manner." Also see Chapter VI. 



16 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"How did Belgium violate her own neutrality?" I 
asked. 

"By agreeing to let England and France attack Ger- 
many through Belgium," answered the Field Mar- 
shal. 

"Are the German people united for the war; does 
anybody in Germany object?" 

"Have you found anybody who objects?" coun- 
tered the Field Marshal. 

I admitted I had not. 

"And you will not. The German people are as one 
man. You will find it so," asserted the German Field 
Marshal. 

"The people I have talked to in Germany seem to 
think Germany will win," I observed. 

"Of course we shall win ! We have no doubt — 
have you ?" asked the Field Marshal. 

I explained that Americans did not understand how 
Germany could win over the great combination against 
her, and asked the Field Marshal the reason for Ger- 
man faith in victory. 

"We shall win because we know we are right," was 
the Field Marshal's answer. "Every German soldier 
knows we are right. He knows what he is fighting 
for. The combination of our enemies does not 
frighten us. Frederick the Great won against a com- 
bination of comparatively more enemies, and he was 
not so well prepared as we are now. We are fighting 
for existence." 

"What are the chief elements of German strength?" 
I asked. 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 77 

The Field Marshal answered slowly, as if counting 
these elements. 

"Our knowledge that we are right; the faith of the 
nation that we shall win; their willingness to die in 
order to win; the perfect discipline of our troops; 
their understanding of orders; their greater intelli- 
gence, education and spirit; our organization and re- 
sources." 

"Americans admit and admire German organization; 
but they think, quite naturally, that your resources are 
not great enough to enable you to keep up the war," 
I observed. 

"Don't worry about our resources. They are plenty. 
More than enough. The world will learn that in time." 

"You spoke of the superiority of the German sol- 
dier. What of the Russians?" 

"Good fighters, who don't know what they are fight- 
ing for," said the Field Marshal. "They only know 
that they are told to fight. They don't know why. 
They have no education. The German soldier is alive ; 
the Russian dead — in mind." 

"Flow long. Field Marshal, will the war last?" I 
asked. 

"Until victory for Germany!" 

"What of the health and spirit of your troops?" 

"Excellent! See for yourself!" 

"How many prisoners have you taken?" 

"Ask the railroad authorities. They know to the 
man. But more than three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand." 

"Does that mean the number your army has taken, 



7^ WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

or the total number of prisoners which all German 
armies have taken?" 

"Only the prisoners we have taken in the east. We 
have taken more than three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand here in the east." 

"Does that include the number of prisoners taken 
by the Austrians?" 

"No; only the prisoners the German troops in the 
east have taken. I don't know how many the Aus- 
trians have taken. They have taken a great many."* 

"Many reports have been published that there are 
dissensions between the German and Austrian forces, 
both officers and men." 

"Ridiculous!" said the Field Marshal. "False, of 
course!" 

The Field Marshal had been so frank and good- 
humored that I laughingly asked him when he was 
going to take Warsaw. 

His eyes twinkled with fun as he said : 

"Can't tell. We are thinking ; but so are the Russian 
officers thinking. But we shall take it. Maybe to-day ; 
maybe to-morrow; maybe next day. But when we 
move, we shall win !" 

Like the conversation with Grand Admiral von Tir- 
pitz, this talk wnth. Field Marshal von Hindenburg was 
written out, submitted to and approved by him ; and at 
my request the official stamp of the General Staff was 
placed upon each page of the manuscript, of which I 
retain the original. 

* This conversation occurred February 21, 1915. 



THE GERMAN EMPEROR 79 

/// — Rising Stars 

Such is the appearance and such the sentiment of 
the two German fighting leaders, now most in the pub- 
He eye of the world. Because of this fact, and because 
they are typical of the German military and naval 
officer, of which they are respectively the highest ex- 
amples, I have described and reported them for the 
American reader. Whatever may be thought of the 
issues involved in the war, let no one imagine that Ger- 
many is not well equipped with officers, not only in 
great numbers, but of uncommon ability and thorough 
training. 

It is safe, also, to say that as the war goes on the 
names of other men, now unheard of outside of Ger- 
many, will become as well known to the world and to 
history as even Von Hindenburg or Von Tirpitz now 
are. Already, above the horizon there has arisen one 
of certainly great talents, and one whom many in 
Germany think a genius of the first magnitude. 

As the summer passes and next autumn comes, let 
the American reader watch for the name of Von Lu- 
dendorff, now Chief of Von Hindenburg's staff; Von 
Ludendorff may be a field marshal by that time.* 

Before the snows of next winter fly, look for the 
name of Hoffman, now a colonel in Von Hindenburg's 
military household ; Hoffman may be a general by then. 

On the west front also there are other younger offi- 
cers of highest promise. Indeed, in both the eastern 
and the western theaters of war there are a surprising 

* Written February 4, 1915. 



80 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

number of officers with the abihty, the will and the dar- 
ing to make history, and to weave their names into it. 
Yet, as important, as indispensable as they are, the offi- 
cers are the smallest factor in this war; it is the people 
which constitute the vital force in the struggle, and 
back of the people, their ideals. Other chapters deal 
with these fundamental elements of this destiny-deter- 
mining struggle. 



IV 

A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE* 

ALTHOUGH you do not go to bed until near mid- 
night, and are asleep before your head touches 
the pillow, you need no thundering on the door to 
awaken you at half past four this morning. The bel- 
lowing wind performs that service for you — you had 
no idea it could howl with such a penetrating voice. 
And its tones are arctic. They announce a tempera- 
ture which makes you shiver before you feel it. 

Perhaps your experience the day and night before 
subconsciously puts an edge on the blasts of the gale in 
your imagination. For you are in Lodz, in Russian 
Poland, and you have driven from Posen, nine hours 
at top speed of a swift automobile in the face of a 
driving wind, sharpened by particles of snow which 
sting your face like wasps. You are on your way to a 
battlefield, some ten miles beyond Lowitsch; and Lo- 
witsch itself is about thirty miles from Lodz. You are 
soon to see fighting within an hour's automobile ride, 
in peace time, of Warsaw. 

Advised by yesterday's frigid journey, and cau- 
tioned by officers, you take extreme measures against 
the expected chill of the day before you. Three suits 



* T^odz, Russian Poland, January 31, February 1, 1915. 

81 



82 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

of woolen underwear ; riding breeches, shirt and coat ; 
a woolen sweater; fur-lined vest; heavy fur coat with 
a long cape over all ; thick, long, woolen, hand-knitted 
socks; riding boots with heavy wool socks over these, 
encased from knee to ankle in leather puttees; thick, 
wool-knit headpiece beneath the cap, covering fore- 
head, ears and chin and warmly circling the neck; au- 
tomobile goggles for the eyes; gloves, with soft, thick 
mittens worn over them — such are the fortifications 
which, you are informed, your softened and unsea- 
soned civilian tissues will require against the cold, 
speeding in an open automobile. 

Although they, too, are warmly clad, the German 
officer and soldier need no such padding; for, living, 
marching, fighting constantly in the open has estab- 
lished good relations between them and the weather. 

At the very outset is a meaningful circumstance: 
your guide in charge of the auto is a gentle-spoken 
Jewish youth. Not a feature is Hebraic; only his 
name advertises his origin. He is a volunteer in the 
automobile corps, as is his father, also. He knows 
every road, lane and bypath in that whole region. His 
duties are full of extreme peril — already, he has won 
the iron cross by intrepid daring and cool intelligence. 
His fidelity has made him the trusted messenger of the 
strictest and most secretive military headquarters in 
the Empire. 

You have heard of this young person before, and of 
his brilliant, hazardous work. He is a symbol and a 
sign — the people of his race in Germany are displaying 
incredible devotion to the government, limitless sup- 
port of the war. Not Bavarian, nor yet Prussian, not 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 83 

Saxon nor Wurtemburger, nor any person of pure 
Teutonic blood exceeds the Jew in Germany in his 
eagerness to sacrifice everything for German victory. 

Mile upon mile you fly under the dark sky, low-hang- 
ing with clouds from which falls a smatter of snow. 
The landscape is a study in black and white. Patches of 
pine forest stand out like sections of midnight on the 
snowy plain. To the right and left are Russian battery 
pits and rifle trenches, long since tenantless; it would 
seem that every foot of the way had been fought over, 
though not seriously, except here and there where it is 
plain that a hard fight occurred. 

Hamlets, villages, and one or two small towns pass 
like a bizarre panorama. Naked walls of houses, which 
unluckily had stood in the line of fire, hardly attract 
your notice, for such specters have become so familiar 
that they are commonplace. You do note a big hole, 
perhaps ten feet in diameter, in the brick tower of 
a Russian church, a little way beneath its bulk-like, 
blue-painted, oriental dome, so grotesque is the con- 
trast ; a German shell had routed the enemy from this 
observation point. 

Two lofty pine trees, side by side in a field far 
from the nearest woodland, stamp themselves curi- 
ously upon your mind. Again, a tall cross of rough 
timber, bearing the Holy Image, rises before you at 
the roadside — the cold seems more intense, the gloom 
of sky and field and wood still more desolate. 

Yet now and then where for a hand's space eddies 
of wind have swept the snow from the fields, you see 
that all is cultivated, and that winter wheat is com- 
ing on. 



84 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

You begin to meet empty provision wagons, now, 
the first one driven by peasants, and then others, driven 
by German soldiers. 

And now you pass through a town, where the unex- 
pected greets you with curt abruptness; the inhab- 
itants are walking to and fro along the street about 
their daily affairs. Upon a stool by the side of a door 
sits an old woman, with loaves of bread piled on the 
table before her, ready for customers; and across the 
way, through the window of a meat vender's shop, you 
see a side of fresh beef hanging from its hook beside 
other familiar wares of the butcher's shop. This in 
Russian Poland, January 31, 1915, and you on your 
way to the near-by battlefield. 

Soon, you meet other provision wagons, all empty 
and going in the opposite direction. And then you 
pass a train of these same vehicles, heavily laden, mak- 
ing their steady and unhurried way toward the still dis- 
tant front. You began to count them until fifty-two 
have been left behind, and then give it up, for there is 
a long line still ahead of you, and other incidents cap- 
ture your attention. 

One in particular is like a scene from Alice in 
Wonderland, so odd, so absurd, so unreal it seems. 
You pass through a village some four or five miles 
from Lowitsch, and along the road from this vil- 
lage to the larger town, strange figures are trudging. 
A shawl covers the head and shoulders down to the 
waist, from which hangs an amazing skirt, bulged out 
by many skirts beneath until it looks like a bell. This 
overskirt is made of strips of different colored cloth, 
each perhaps three inches wide, one yellow, one blue, 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 85 

another orange, still another green. A little distance 
from you, they look like great beetles. They are 
peasant-women, peculiar to this locality, plodding to 
church; for this battle day is Sunday. You already 
hear the distance-dulled grumbling of the guns. 

Passing through LoAvitsch signs of unusual military 
activity become unmistakable; provision wagons, am- 
munition trains, troops of Uhlans — their lances like the 
long black needles of mythical giants — all moving 
steadily forward; groups of common soldiers appar- 
ently connected with the commissariat or some other 
nonfighting branch of the service. 

Yet all of this woven in and out with the civilian 
life of the place — a soldier making some purchase in 
a shop; a slender trickle of variously garbed men and 
women going toward the church; a blond-bearded 
German teamster standing for a moment's rest, his 
face full of good-humored content, as he idly smokes 
a cigar — and you are journeying to where men are 
fighting and dying not far from this spot. 

As you press forward, the road becomes more con- 
gested. Among the throng of wagons you observe now 
and then a field kitchen ; and two or three field guns 
attract your attention. Yet, though filled with vehicles, 
men and horses, the road is not choked; and while 
your automobile now must move at the slow pace of 
the general throng, its progress is not halted for a 
single instant until a village is reached within perhaps 
three miles of Bolimoff, the center of the German 
battle front in this particular action, which extends 
many miles to right and left. 

This hamlet and the road beyond are packed with 



86 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

wagons bearing provender for horses, provisions for 
men and food for the voracious guns. Many mounted 
officers ride amidst the jam of this war caravan. You 
wonder why this congested mass -of men, horses and 
wagons does not become locked in the narrow road- 
way. Yet only now and then is there a brief stop, 
never lasting longer than two or three minutes, when 
again you go forward. 

A little later you find the cause : the hard- frozen, 
snow-covered road has become slippery and one of the 
six horses drawing an ammunition wagon slips and 
falls. The teamster, aided by one or two others, helps 
the prostrate animal to his feet, speaking words of 
encouragement in kindly tones. Time and again you 
witness repetitions of this incident. At every such 
enforced halt teamsters, cavalrymen and even officers 
carefully examine the feet of the other horses, remov- 
ing solicitously every particle of hard earth, every 
pebble or other fragment of caked snow and dirt until 
the frog is as clean as when the horse left his quarters. 

A side road joins the main thoroughfare and this 
is packed with infantry. A pause comes until these are 
well on the highway; and again you witness more 
cleaning of the horses' feet. 

By now the firing of great guns is filling the heavens 
with a very havoc of sound. The dense mass of am- 
munition and provision wagons is thinning out, some 
going by a side road to one part of the field, others in a 
different direction, and the remainder straight on at a 
sharper pace. So you are able to pass the infantry. 

They have marched sixty kilometers, but in no hurry 
and with proper rest and abundant food. They look 




"Food for the voracious guns." German ammunition train going 
to a section of the batteries. A Uttle incident in a snowy battle 
day. Battle of BolimofF, Russian Poland (before Warsaw). 
January 31st, 1915. The German organization is as perfect as the 
good cheer and physical fitness of the German soldiers. 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 87 

quite fresh and again you note the circumstance that 
you observed with surprise on the western front — the 
well-fed, physically fit appearance of these men; and 
the good humor, too, a smile never failing to bring an 
answering smile. 

A regiment of Uhlans rides in the open field near the 
road ; the horse of one falls, its foot slipping on the icy 
slope of a ditch ; the rider's leg is caught and slightly 
hurt; he pays no attention to this but, limping, helps 
his mount to rise, patting the animal's neck in consola- 
tion. 

And so you reach and pass the spot by the side of a 
road in an open field where General von Mackensen 
and his staff are stationed. Across the road are a few 
houses of a tiny hamlet. Many times that day you 
observe this fighting General, one of Field Marshal 
von Hindenburg's most trusted lieutenants. He is 
tall and slender, his gray hair and mustache adding 
to the distinction of his appearance. 

Just now, he is walking to and fro talking with an 
officer, the remainder of his staff standing apart. 

Some three hours later, when you again pass, go- 
ing to another part of the field, the General is sitting 
alone in his automobile; and toward the close of day, 
when you once more go to the front of the German 
center, he is pacing back and forth by himself, his 
head bent forward in thought, his long, gray military 
overcoat, with cape about shoulders, reaching almost 
to his heels. 

An elongated, cloud-colored object floats high in the 
air a mile to your left, or rather hangs, stationary, 
sloping backward from below. It is an observation war 



88 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

balloon, a "captive balloon," as it is called, held to the 
earth by a cable and drawn down if nothing can be 
seen from it or if the fire of the enemy upon it be- 
comes too hot. Some time later this aircraft is brought 
to the earth. The falling snow and dark clouds prob- 
ably made it ineffective, rather than the enemy's fire. 
It does not matter : much more is to be seen from an- 
other point you are soon to visit. Indeed something is 
to be observed all about you. 

As you have advanced toward the scene of action, 
the roar of artillery has grown into a continuous series 
of thunder peals. You detect a new note, not heard 
from the batteries before Arras in France and Mes- 
sines in Belgium. In ten minutes you find its source. 
Not twenty feet from either side of the road, just 
behind and indeed on the edge of the town of Bolimoff, 
are two Austrian thirty and a half centimeter mortars. 

They are in slow action, and you stop for a while 
to watch their work. An artilleryman turns a wheel at 
the mortar's side, and its muzzle rises until the thick 
monster points upward at a decided angle. By a 
mechanism, the great shell is lifted into place; for such 
missiles weigh upwards of a thousand pounds. Then 
comes an earth-shaking explosion, and a twisting, 
shuddering mingle of howl and scream as the giant 
explosive hurtles through the air. 

On right and left, perhaps three hundred yards from 
the roadway, are the heavy, German field batteries 
of twenty-one centimeter guns. They are in rapid ac- 
tion, trying to silence the Russian batteries three or 
four miles away. The Russians are answering, but not 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 89 

plentifully nor with good aim, at least so far as these 
particular batteries are concerned. 

You see only two geysers of earth shoot high in the 
air, perhaps forty or fifty feet. They are from two 
heavy Russian shells exploding in quick succession. 
But no more fall, and even these two are some yards 
to the right of the last gun of the German battery. 
You think them quite harmless, and would walk over 
to see the holes they make in the ground, but, luckily, 
you are diverted. Later in the day you are to find that 
one of the shells fell near enough to do at least a frac- 
tion of its intended deadly work. 

The lighter German batteries are in ceaseless action, 
some distance in front of these larger guns. This and 
another fact apprise you that there is no imminent 
danger in the immediate neighborhood of the heavier 
artillery: enormous tents are just behind and within a 
stone's throw of the big ordnance. 

So you feel secure although, of course, you are in 
reach of the long-range Russian cannon, as two of 
their bursting shells testified a few moments before. 
More of them may come any time and fall anywhere. 
But this is unlikely — the German officers think the 
more powerful Russian artillery silenced or drawn 
back. 

These great tents are field stables for hundreds of 
horses; for the German army horse, whether cavalry, 
artillery or commissariat, is as well cared for in the 
field as in the permanent stables of the peace establish- 
ment. Also, parks of field artillery, with horses har- 
nessed to the gun carriages, and artillerymen are stand- 



90 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ing ready, apparently waiting for orders to go into 
action; so are a large number of Uhlans, each man 
beside his saddled and bridled mount. 

Hundreds of men not thus occupied are moving 
about upon their various duties; everything is quite 
casual, indeed indifferent; It is all a matter of course. 
From the appearance and conduct of these men, you 
never would imagine that a battle is going forward 
and that they are within its edges. As for the roar of 
artillery, they are so used to it that they are not con- 
scious of it ; it no longer registers an impression on the 
brain. They pay absolutely no attention to the few 
bursting Russian shells. 

You make your lunch with the common soldiers, one 
of whom politely offers you his tin soup dish and an- 
other his spoon, the handle of which is a fork, apolo- 
gizing that he has nothing better. The food is a thick 
soup made of navy beans, with slices and chunks of 
pork. Also, of course, there is plenty of brown bread. 
It is amazing the quantity of provisions the commis- 
sariat manages to get to the front. The soldier is never 
without abundant food, so far as you have been able 
to observe. 

The battery on tire left, and a short distance in 
front of the canvas stables has been in rapid action, 
and you go to it to see the gunners face to face. There 
are three huge guns standing on the ground's surface 
and not in pits, and screened from anything but 
close scrutiny of the enemy by a fringe of evergreens 
fixed firmly in the earth. Even from a short space 
away these look like growing trees. 

The men have given the guns feminine names — one 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 91 

is Anna, you read; another is Elsa, while the third is 
Edith. Where they picked up the name Edith puzzles 
you, for it is not a familiar German name. 

These gun squads have rigged up a little house of 
brown canvas. On a board above the entrance you read 
that this is "Villa Brat Kartofflen," that is, "Villa 
Baked Potatoes." Anna has just sent her compliments 
six thousand five hundred meters to the enemy and, 
for a time, the battery ceases action. 

In Villa Baked Potatoes several gunners are sitting 
on empty cartridge cases around a tiny stove. They 
make room for you with smiling hospitality. 

The other men are busy about this and that detail 
of the guns, which for the moment are inactive. Yet 
all is ready for instant service — at any moment orders 
may be telephoned for firing; and the roar, the leaping 
flames, the screaming shells will again entertain you. 

So in this breath of leisure you would like a picture 
of one of these war maidens, Anna, Elsa or Edith, and 
also of Villa Baked Potatoes and its tenants. A young 
lieutenant offers to manipulate your kodak for you, 
and the gunners all gather about laughing, for all the 
world like so many children, each one anxious to be in 
the picture. 

Still no advance in force, no general movement of 
masses of men, nothing but the monotony of the per- 
petual roar of cannon ; all are waiting until the artillery 
does its work thoroughly and even more until the day 
becomes clearer — it still snows and the skies are dark. 

From the center of the near-by town in front of you, 
a church steeple lifts itself high above the few trees 
and surrounding houses. You are advised that within 



92 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

the highest point of its tower, the Germans have their 
observation station from which are noted the effect 
of the German fire and directions telephoned accord- 
ingly to the various batteries. 

You are informed also that despite this placid rear, 
where only the big guns are at work, and an occasional 
Russian shell tears up the ground, the German and 
Russian infantry face each other from opposing 
trenches beyond the tower. Only the overpowering 
and dominating thunder of the great guns prevents 
your hearing the crackle of the thousands of rifles. 

Russian trenches are about to be taken — news has 
come that the Germans already have captured one. 
From this church steeple alone can this fighting be 
seen. 

To the church, then, you make your way, and after 
a space permission comes to go to the top. You mount 
by a winding stair of brick through the pitch black 
shaft of the tower to a large space with three big 
arched openings, two of them boarded up. Through 
the unobstructed one, a section of the field of action is 
before you. 

For a while you examine it by the aid of strong 
field glasses, until told to mount the ladder leading 
to the final loft, just beneath the sharply sloping 
roof of the belfry. Here you find the very heart of 
activity, the busiest single spot you have discovered in 
all Germany. 

A general of artillery sits in the semi-darkness on a 
little stool, his eye fixed on the mirror of a curious 
observation telescope, bent at the top like an ear trum- 
pet, its flange looking through a small opening made 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 93 

4 

in the belfry roof. He notes the effect of every German 
shell on either Russian trench or battery, and with 
quick, accurate decisiveness gives brief orders to offi- 
cers seated at telephones, who in turn bark them out in 
sharp detail over the wires to the proper gun squads in 
the field. And now you recall that in the church en- 
trances were clusters of wires, in the loft wires — every- 
where wires. 

You tarry but a minute or two, scanning the field 
through this distance-grasping instrument, and then 
climb down to the loft below; for these men are ab- 
sorbed in deadly, imminent and incessant duty, and 
you would not trespass upon their courtesy. 

By aid of that observation telescope, supplemented 
by long and steady gaze at the opening of the loft be- 
low, you make out something of what is going on in 
the field before you. 

A long line of men, each a short space from the 
other, is moving forward. They do not appear to 
rush. They look as if they were clad in black, so sharp 
is their outline upon the dead white of the snow. One 
lies down ; another sinks to a sitting posture. Midway 
of the field back of this line, two men are walking. 
They do not seem to hurry. At another point a man 
half-reclines in the snow, leaning on his elbow. 

Along a cross-road, several wagons crawl. In the 
distance are a cloud of figures — the Russians you are 
told. But why are they not in their trenches? It is 
very confusing for all its apparent simplicity — and 
deadly in spite of its seeming mildness. 

"Here come some Russian prisoners," a voice at 
your side quietly remarks. 



94 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

You look, and on the road leading from the field to- 
ward the town marches a column of disarmed men in 
charge of two or three Uhlans. 

You hasten down to get a closer view of these cap- 
tured soldiers; but you miss them for the moment, 
though you are to see them, and many more, later in 
the day. But now the wounded who are still able to 
walk come straggling directly by you, for the tempo- 
rary hospital is in a broad, one-story, brick building in 
the same street, only a few hundred feet away. Most 
of them have been hit in the head, face, hand or arm, 
the familiar wounds of the trenches. 

Each is bandaged, having received first aid in the 
field hospital near the firing-line. The blood is soaking 
through these bandages. Only one man passes who 
has been shot through the foot ; he limps along on the 
arm of a comrade, carrying his perforated boot. After 
bandaging, a thick woolen sock has been pulled over 
his wounded foot. He is quite willing to tell about it, 
and laughs as he poses for a kodak snapshot. 

You have seen wounded men before, hundreds and 
hundreds of them ; but these had been in hospital trains, 
field hospitals, or permanent hospitals. For a long time 
you have been anxious to see how men looked and 
acted when newly hurt on the battlefield itself. And 
here they are before you. 

The injured ones appear to accept their plight with 
nonchalant indifference. Are they and you and all 
male creatures callous, you wonder; for a few weeks 
before you had read a woman's description of wounded 
men which was so ghastly and sickening that you felt 
quite undone. Yet now with the reality before your 



. ^ 



19 




Shot three times, but head up and still game. "What spirit ! You 
feel like shouting, hurrah ! " The white on the coat is snow sticking 
to and covering the dripping blood. Wounded German soldiers 
coming in from the firing line just beyond the town. Battle of 
Bolimoff, (near Warsaw) Russian Poland, January 31st, 1915. The 
fortitude and staying power of the German soldier is astonishing. 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 95 

eyes, you are not so thrilled as you were by this gifted 
lady's shuddering lines. 

Most of those with wounds in the head have some 
blood on their faces ; it creeps beneath the white of the 
wrappings. Still, many of these are not even pale 
— you can see that by such parts of their faces as 
are not splotched with blood. Some, of course, are 
pallid. But most appear unconcerned, and all quite 
resolute. 

Now and then there is one who seems to be ill — 
from nausea, you are told. A very young soldier looks 
very sick; he seems dazed. Surprise and wonder are 
written on his features. 

You look into his particular case and find that he is 
a boy seventeen years old, a volunteer. His condition 
would excite the supersensitive to paroxysms of pity; 
as a matter of fact he is not badly hurt. He will be 
all right in a week and in a month he will be a veteran 
— a veteran and very proud of this day's experience. 
It is possible that to-morrow he will write a letter to 
father and mother full of gladness and hearty cheer; 
just that has happened many times. 

But here comes another who is in worse case. You 
judge him to be about twenty-five years of age. He 
staggers with weakness, although upheld by sturdy 
comrades on either side. He has been shot three times 
— once on the scalp, once in the hand, and once through 
the shoulder. It is a miracle he can walk at all — but 
he does, and proudly. The man's fortitude is amazing. 

The blood has dripped all over his clothing and the 
snow falling upon it has crusted into white patches 
made scarlet again by the red drops splashing upon 



96 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

them. Yet though weak from exhaustion, his head 
is held high and defiant. How game! What spirit! 
You feel like shouting hurrah ! 

Long since the building which has been comman- 
deered for a hospital is crowded and a throng of 
wounded wait their turn before the door. Cigarettes 
are produced and everybody smokes. There is no sign 
of depression nor any depressing talk. They have 
done their duty and were wounded in doing it. They 
will do their duty again and still again and at last be 
killed, perhaps. To them, no matter! 

Wounds, death, life, — they are counters in the game 
these men are playing, the glorious game of patriotism. 
They understand it very well. Come not to these men 
with smug sympathy and stuffy platitudes. They will 
have none of it. 

After all, stamina is good to look upon. Perhaps it 
is just as well that civilization has not whittled away 
entirely the primal strength of man. 

All the time the Austrian mortars and heavy Ger- 
man batteries in the rear of the town keep up their 
bombardment of the Russian positions, the shells sing- 
ing, howling, screaming over the town. Some of them 
go right over the church in whose tower you have been 
and around which you now are idly strolling. 

The concussion from each discharge of the Austrian 
mortars shakes the building. You saw the boards 
nailed over the openings vibrate and felt the quiver 
of the whole structure, when you were in the loft. 
A plume of earth spouts from an exploding Russian 
shell exactly in line with the church, at which plainly 
it was directed. 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 97 

The aim is excellent, but the shell falls short — at 
least an hundred yards from its target, you judge. But 
an officer remarks, indifferently, that it is not more 
than half that distance away. 

The Russians have begun too late to shell the church 
tower; all day long you have wondered why they did 
not concentrate their long range, big guns on this build- 
ing, obviously the German observation station. One 
explanation is that earlier in the day, when their larger 
shells fell near the batteries beyond the church and 
could have destroyed the tower, the falling snow made 
it invisible to the Russian observers who could see only 
the flash from the German guns, at which the Russian 
artillerymen therefore directed their return fire ; and 
now, forced back a space, their long range artillery 
can not quite reach this most important objective. 

You now go to the left wing of the battle line to- 
ward Sochatschew. Back past the Austrian mortars 
still at their clumsy toil ; past General von Mackensen's 
headquarters ; across a railroad on which stands a long 
train of coaches, the engine with steam up, waiting for 
those who are not wounded seriously enough for the 
hospital train; and then by another road, at an acute 
angle. 

The fields and hills here seem quite deserted, and, 
at first, nothing appears to be happening save an artil- 
lery duel. You see only flashes from the Russian can- 
non. Yet between these two contending batteries, thou- 
sands of Russians and Germans face one another in 
their trenches; and soon you catch the rattling sound 
of heavy rifle firing as the automobile speeds along the 
hard frozen road. 



98 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

What a multitude of men there must be — the clatter 
of the rifles is like the sound of a thousand threshing 
machines such as you worked at as a youth. Still there 
is no thrill in it for you. You are out of rifle range — 
but not beyond the reach of the Russian cannon, even 
their light field pieces. No, not by a good deal. You 
are not aware of this now; but you learn it in a mo- 
ment. 

An embankment of the highway is reached behind 
which a score of German officers are at work. One of 
them, evidently the commander of that wing, is pacing 
to and fro by himself. Through an upright field tele- 
scope curved at the top another officer studies the 
enemy's ground. The automobile stops but : 

"Go on! Go on! They will see you and locate us, if 
you stand there!" comes the sharp command. 

At full speed the order is obeyed, and the auto fair- 
ly flies forward. As it goes, the crash of a German 
battery on the left slaps your ear drum like the blow of 
an open hand, so close to the road it is, and yet so well 
screened that you do not see it. It is shelling the Rus- 
sian position directly to the right of the road, but a 
long distance away and is firing over your head, — the 
shells speak to you closely and familiarly as they fly 
just above you. 

The Russians are answering, although you know 
this only by the red signals their guns display as they 
are discharged, for no shells fall near you or indeed on 
the roadway you are traveling. 

In less than half a mile stands a farm building. Here 
a sentry runs into the highway motioning for the auto 
to stop. It stops. 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 99 

"Go back at once!" is the order. Twice that after- 
noon two automobiles with officers have drawn the 
Russian fire along that very stretch of road, you are 
informed; and you will invite it again if you do not 
vanish and vanish quickly. 

Are they trying to frighten you, you wonder. Are 
they making a joke at your civilian expense to tell in 
the laughing bivouac ? 

But no, apparently not; for the sentry himself seems 
alarmed — his voice, eye, face, gesture advertise the 
genuineness of his anxiety. 

Also you note an unusual circumstance : glancing at 
the house while the sentry talks to the young officer 
with you in the automobile, you observe another sol- 
dier, his rifle held in both hands by his side, ready for 
instant use, the left hand grasping the elevated barrel, 
the right hand the stock at the trigger guard. It is 
either a ridiculous posture, or else the Russians are 
dangerously near, or perhaps he actually means to 
shoot, if the auto does not turn back as ordered. 

But back it goes, and at a higher speed than it had 
come. The chaufifeur now understands that not only 
are we between the Russian and the German fire, but 
that we are so near the German batteries at which the 
Russians are aiming that to stand still, even for a short 
time, on that elevated plainly-seen road would be sure 
to bring upon the auto the practice of the Russian 
marksmen. Between two fires! The chauft'eur needs 
no further urging — the auto quivers as he throws on 
every ounce of power. Yet, fast as we go, the shells 
sing an intimate song as they fly above us. 

And thus you leave this place which appeared pas- 



100 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

sive and secure a quarter of an hour before, but which 
turned out to be the hottest spot in the day's experi- 
ence. 

You start for the right wing, but an officer's chance 
remark — that you there will see one of the Czar's 
chateaux — misleads you ; you think you are being taken 
away from action on a sightseeing excursion. So you 
insist on going back to the center where at least there 
are masses of men, large movement, the white and 
crimson bandaged witnesses of battle, the prisoners 
and the flaming, smoking guns. Thus a too alert sus- 
picion trips you up ; for, by not going to the right wing, 
you miss tough fighting and swift action as you learn 
long afterward. 

Still, the return to the center is not bootless. You 
meet and make your way through a most extraordinary 
procession. Scores upon scores of provision wagons 
are moving backward. Even more ammunition vans 
are going backward too. Some light field guns rumble 
along in the same direction. Many Red Cross motor- 
ambulances, doors shut and windows curtained, pick 
their way carefully, yet not slowly, toward the rear; a 
long column of infantry trudges past faced the same 
way. 

Is this then a retreat, you wonder? To your unprac- 
ticed eye it so appears. But why no gloom on the faces 
of these marching men? Why no signs of fear, why no 
hurry? They even make jokes. One young soldier slips 
and cries out, laughing: "This is more slippery than 
the ice palace in Berlin !" — a famous resort where peo- 
ple of the German capital skate on manufactured ice. 

Now comes a squad of wounded soldiers, every one 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 101 

hurt in the head, face, hand or arm, like those you had 
seen earher in the day, but swinging along quite con- 
tentedly as if on an ordinary march instead of making 
their way to a larger hospital. Now and then one or 
two wounded men ride in a wagon which is giving 
them a lift. Indeed, these empty provision carts could 
carry all the injured. But most of them, it would ap- 
pear, prefer to walk. 

And now, trudging along through the field, parallel 
with and just next to the ditch at the roadside, comes 
a score or more rather large men with unfamiliar 
clothing, yet suggesting in color the German, though 
browner. They wear a peculiar headgear — a rimless 
sloping cap made, apparently, of grayish close-curling 
wool, and with faces distinctly different from the Ger- 
man type. 

These are Russian prisoners, in charge of a noncom- 
missioned officer and a single Uhlan. Two or three 
carry spades. These captured ones do not seem down- 
cast. They appear even cheerful. Some actually are 
laughing, and all grin as they are ordered to stop to 
be kodaked. 

It is late afternoon, the clouds have broken and the 
declining sun throws its belated rays almost horizon- 
tally. You hear a whir from above and, looking, be- 
hold what you have been searching for all day — a 
"Taube," flying perhaps a thousand feet over your head 
and mounting by spirals to greater and gun-safe 
heights. Soon it makes off for a survey of the Russian 
positions. Before the sun sinks from sight General 
von Mackensen will have a report from this scout of 
the air. 



102 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

And now more foot soldiers come marching rear- 
ward on the other side of the road. There are two long 
columns, and you note several standards encased in 
their rainproof covering. Then passes a troop of cav- 
alry, and still more Red Cross automobiles. Then more 
Russian prisoners — a long line of them this time — at 
least four hundred, you judge — or there might be five 
or six hundred. 

At the head of the column is a Russian officer. Not 
a man of them is wounded. Earlier in the day, you had 
seen eight Russian prisoners who were injured coming 
from a separate hospital room in Bolimoff, each one 
with his hurt dressed and bandaged exactly like the 
German victims of the trenches, so far as your un- 
skilled judgment could detect. 

And thus you pass, the variegated array, horses and 
wagons, guns and wounded, prisoners and ambulances, 
infantry and cavalry, woven together by war's eccen- 
tric loom. And so you return to the center, back past 
the batteries and between the mortars, back again into 
Bolimoff and the church with its military beehive of a 
belfry. More wounded are coming in, just like the ones 
that you had seen. Bandages and blood, blood and 
bandages; yet no weakness of spirit in face or eye. 
Manhood is sturdy stuff when put to the test. 

Out of a doorway appears a litter borne by four sol- 
diers. Upon it lies an object that fixes and startles you. 
An arm is gone, and a leg — that much the scant cover- 
ing reveals. And the face is almost black. The work, 
this, of one of the Russian shells you had seen explode 
and thought at the time, in your ignorance, so innocu- 
ous. 




Transfer of German regiment from one part of field to another. 
Battle of Bolimoff, Russian Poland, ''an hour's automobile 
journey from Warsaw," January 31st, 1915. The men are cheerful 
and fresh after a hard day. "Is this, then, a retreat you 
wonder ? But why no gloom on the face of these marching men? 
Why no signs of fear, why no hurry .'' They even make jokes." 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 103 

Yet the blast from it had shattered this man's arm 
and leg and blown dirt and powder deep into the 
skin of his face. But he had not died at once, so power- 
ful was his vitality. The German surgeons have done 
their best to keep him alive, amputating arm and leg, 
but all to no pui^pose. And so they are cari'ying him 
away. 

Night is falling now and you stop to watch the last 
shots from the Austrian mortars, the flame from their 
muzzles leaping seemingly three or four feet at each 
discharge. The artillery fire is slackening as darkness 
deepens. It soon ceases, for the flashes will betray the 
battery positions more plainly, notwithstanding the now 
open sky. For the clouds have cleared entirely from 
the heavens; the stars shine out; the moon floods the 
scene with its revealing, yet deceptive, radiance. 

Now that the cannon are mute, you hear the crackle 
of the rifles from the trenches. The near horizon is 
snapping with sound. You talk with a bandaged sol- 
dier, the side of whose head had been slightly grazed 
by a bullet. He had helped to take a trench after he 
had been hit. 

"Most of the German casualties to-day," he remarks, 
"have been caused by the impetuousness and careless- 
ness of soldiers who had not before been under fire." 
He, himself, is not really hurt, he says, and eagerly de- 
clares that he will be back in the trenches in two or 
three days. 

You hear a long, low rumbling, continuous, uninter- 
mittent, from the road leading back to Lowitsch. Soon 
you meet a line of ammunition wagons ; the train seems 
unending; you count them until you are tired. And 



104 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

provision wagons, too, heavily laden — all these are 
moving to the front. 

These wagons ! these everlasting wagons ! All day 
you have seen them. They were the first moving ob- 
jects to greet your eyes in the morning; every hour 
since, they have rumbled by you ; and after sunset their 
noise is the last sound to address your ear, smothering 
the receding patter of the rifles. Wagons, ammuni- 
tion and provision trains, wagons ! You did not realize 
that there were so many wagons in the world ! 

Throughout most of the night, these streams of food 
and cartridge-bearing vehicles will go forward, dis- 
tributing provisions for man, horse and gun, along the 
front for to-morrow's need. And thus you learn, that 
there has been no retreat, but only a transfer of troops, 
a disposition of wounded and prisoners, a replacing of 
field guns, all according to careful plan advised by the 
day's events. 

Of these events you can make nothing, yourself. The 
goings to and fro; the movements of men forward and 
then backward, yet a discernible order and purpose in 
distracting confusion; the seemingly futile and even 
unintelligent battery action, one section of guns now 
idle and still and now demoniacally active and thun- 
derous — the whole of it appeals to your jaded senses 
as a conglomerate of the fortuitous and accidental, 
and yet conspiring with some far-reaching plan. 

But it has no systematic, clearly outlined meaning 
for you. Indeed, most of the officers themselves are in 
little better case than yourself, as far as the large scope 
of this action is concerned. The soldiers, of course, 
know only that they are units, each squad, company or 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 105 

regiment of them constituting pawns in that particu- 
lar battle game. Only the commanding general and 
selected officers of his staff understand the reason and 
the plan. In these the whole army has a confidence 
that is absolute and undoubting. 

And this battle itself — what is its significance ? True, 
it is as large as many of the biggest conflicts of our 
Civil War. Four hundred and twenty guns and scores 
of thousands of men on one side alone, more than an 
hundred thousand at least. And yet it is but a tiny sec- 
tion of the leviathan battle line, two or three hundred 
miles long, where millions of men on both sides con- 
front one another and strive for mastery. 

This engagement, which you have witnessed for 
twelve flashing hours, (it will last several days), is 
only a strategic move. Its real effect may be felt an 
hundred miles to the north or to the south. Perhaps it 
is a feint ; perhaps a test of the Russian strength in offi- 
cers, guns and ammunition ; perhaps a tentative effort 
to break the enemy's defense at this specific point; per- 
haps anything you like. 

Of one thing only you can be sure : the true meaning 
of the battle of Bolimoff will not be known to the 
world nor to the Eastern Army itself for several weeks 
after it is over, not for a couple of fortnights at the 
very least. Not till then will be revealed its real signifi- 
cance, when that vast and complicated strategy shall 
have been consummated — a strategy which deals with 
thousands of guns, millions of men and hundreds of 
miles of operations. 

It matters not that large numbers of men may be 
killed, perhaps thousands wounded and certainly many 



106 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

thousand prisoners taken; all these are details. The 
Himalayan magnitude of these stupendous operations 
bulks before your mind's eye huge, towering and vastly 
dark as, trying to think upon them, you dash through 
the bitter cold of the snowy plains of Russian Poland, 
the moon sailing aloof and disdainful through the 
heavens, the stars snapping their light from the frigid 
and unsympathetic skies. 

You are stunned by the immensity of it all, and 
are glad when a small circumstance claims your no- 
tice by its novelty and human interest — a drove of 
cattle driven by a Polish peasant lumbering along in 
the snow, and then another, and still a third. Perhaps 
they are for the army? But why, then, are they- not 
in charge of soldiers! Yet no soldier is within miles 
of the spot excepting the infrequent sentries posted at 
long intervals on the highway. Neither do you grasp 
the meaning of this incident. Eighty or an hundred 
fat cattle driven through the snow at eleven o'clock of 
that bitter night in Russian Poland — and peasants 
driving them ! 

But the big plan — who knows that? Only four men 
know the heart of it, for certain — three men, one of 
whom is the Emperor in far-off France; two of whom 
all the time are within the walls of the ugly modern 
Schloss at Posen, and one of whom alternates between 
this miHtary brain center and the various scenes of 
action. 

These three men are Field Marshal von Hinden- 
burg, General von Ludendorff, his chief of staff, and 
Colonel Hoffman, his principal aide.* The enemy 

* See conclusion of preceding chapter. 



A DAY OF WINTER BATTLE 107 

might employ all the spies in the world without re- 
sult. For even the Germans themselves do not know 
the plans which these three men devise and, through 
an amazingly efficient military staff, carry out. 

The working of the mere administrative part of this 
mighty organization, intricate and yet simple, is a study 
in the immense and the effective. One man has charge 
of the roads. It seems absurd and impossible, yet it is 
true, that he and his assistants know the condition of 
every yard of every highway, cross-road, lane or path 
in the whole region from the Carpathians to the Baltic 
up to the German firing-line. It is his duty to advise 
the Field Marshal where and exactly to what extent 
movements of troops and guns are practicable in any 
section ; to what extent and how soon the difficult high- 
ways can be made serviceable, and to put and keep in 
repair roads required for any movement. 

Another administrative officer has charge of the 
heavy task of getting together the necessary troops, 
and having them at any particular point at the needed 
moment. It is the duty of another to see that food for 
these enormous numbers of men and horses is at the 
appointed place at the necessary hour. 

Still another has at his command the whole surgical 
and medical organization which in itself is a small 
army. 

Yet another presides over a department where the 
accounts are audited; not one single pfennig is allowed 
to go astray. And these are only examples. 

Each of these officers has a peculiar natural gift for 
his particular work; and this, added to long training 
and exhaustive study, has made him an expert. 



108 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

This, your attempt to untangle and classify a small 
part of this military cosmos, does not lessen its im- 
mensity. But you wonder why private enterprise has 
developed no such efficiency on such a scale; or why 
the rewards of private industry bring forth no such de- 
votion; or why exertion which these men put forth 
smoothly, without friction or grumbling, and even 
with joy in their work, staggers even the civilian mind 
to contemplate. 

And you speculate, too, on what those who are op- 
posing the Germans can do upon like lines; if better 
or if worse, then the merits of the opposing civiliza- 
tions and ideals of life, which makes the difference? 

Conflict of civilizations, struggle of ideals, contest 
of philosophies! — is it possible that the coming years, 
which hold all secrets, will reveal that this world war 
is a combat of hostile cultures, and that, facing one an- 
other and striving for the mastery, are irreconcilable 
ideas? 

Think it over calmly by the warm glow of cozy fire- 
side and find if, in the end, other or different thoughts 
arise than those which come on the wings of the arctic 
blast as one dashes across the snowy plains under the 
steel blue midnight heavens of Russian Poland on the 
night of January 31, 1915. 



V 

SOME FRUITS OF WAR* 

Prisoners 

GERMANY has within her borders at the present 
moment not far from 700,000 prisoners of war. 
At the end of December, 1914, the exact number was 
586,000, of whom 310,000 were Russians, 220,000 
French, 40,000 Belgians and 16,000 British. 

These specific figures are those of the railway de- 
partment, which is the only mathematically accurate 
authority. Among the British are included Sikhs, 
Gourkas and others from India; among the French, 
Ethiopians, Arabs, Moors and others from Africa. 

On January 15, 1915, a semi-of^cial but fairly re- 
liable estimate placed the total number of prisoners at 
633,000. While this latter figure is not from the 
railway records, it is believed to be reasonably depend- 
able. 

At the date of this writing (February 10, 1915) 
it is known that many thousand additional prisoners 
have been taken. Thus an approximate of 700,000 
would seem to be not unfair. These numbers include 
no civilian, but only soldiers actually engaged in hos- 
tilities. 



* Written at Berne, Switzerland, February 10, 1915. 

109 



no WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

This same semi-official but sufficiently dependable 
estimate placed the total number of German missing 
and prisoners at 154,000. It is possible, of course, 
that all of these may be prisoners. 

Thus, at this date Germany has on her hands, in un- 
wounded, able-bodied, captured enemies about one per 
cent, of her total population of men, women and chil- 
dren. 

To feed these prisoners means the providing of 
enough food to supply the whole German nation for 
about three days out of a year. Yet it is firmly ex- 
pected in Germany that the number of prisoners taken 
by German forces will be very greatly increased during 
the present year, and Germany is preparing, now, for 
that contingency. 

These soldiers of the Allies held in Germany are 
concentrated in prison camps scattered all over the 
empire. Let us, then, go through two of these camps, 
which are typical of all. Yet all these places are not 
alike; for, although the same general orders govern 
all, and the same quantity and quality of food are sup- 
plied everywhere, the character, ability and inclina- 
tion of the camp commander has much to do with the 
camp management. 

"We have no complaint to make, sir, considering 
that we are prisoners of war," was the answer of a 
French common soldier when questioned about his 
treatment; "and," added he, of his own accord, "they 
treat us like white men, sir." This particular prisoner 
spoke English perfectly, having worked in London 
for three or four years. 

Permitted to talk freely with the prisoners, more 




French (left) and Russian (Right) prisoners in a German prison 
camp. There are surprisingly good relations between the German 
officers and guards and the French and Russian prisoners; but 
between English prisoners and the Germans there is antagonism. 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 111 

than a score were questioned and conversed with — 
Russians and French as well as English. This was 
done through an interpreter, whom I have known per- 
sonally for many years, brought with me for such 
work from my own home town in America, where he 
was born, and who has no German associations or 
connections whatever. 

No German interpreted an5rthing here reported ; nor 
did any one object or interfere in the slightest with my 
conversing with the prisoners. 

In this camp are more than twelve thousand men, 
the great majority of them being French, the next 
largest number being Russians. There are perhaps 
three or four hundred Sikhs, Gourkas and Turcos, and 
only thirty Englishmen. 

Very lonely these latter appear among so many thou- 
sands of their fellow prisoners, whose language they 
do not speak or understand, and with whom, it would 
seem, they associate but little. 

Perhaps this was the reason for the sour frame of 
mind in which this tiny group of men were found, 
which was in striking contrast with the comparative 
contentment of the French, Russians, Sikhs and 
Gourkas. 

"Do you get enough to eat?" 

"Only a bare existence, sir." 

"But can you not buy what you want at the camp 
canteen? Do you not get money from home?" I 
asked. 

"No, sir. I wrote to my brother in the States for 
money the end of last November, and I have had no 
answer yet." It was then the nineteenth of January. 



112 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Such are typical samples of the comments of several 
of these thirty English prisoners. 

On the contrary : 

"How are you getting along?/' was asked of a Rus- 
sian. 

"All right," he answered. "We have nothing to 
complain of." 

"Do you get enough to eat ?" 

"Yes, plenty," came the contented reply. 

"I'll wager," broke in the German camp commander, 
"that he is getting more to eat than he ever had before 
in his life!" 

This exchange of question and answer was in sub- 
stance the same as that which occurred with all Rus- 
sian prisoners talked to. Without exception each of 
the latter grinned with bovine good humor. 

"Considering that you are a prisoner, I take it that 
you are satisfied, from what you have said," was the 
concluding remark to a hearty, pleasant- faced French- 
man, after many questions and answers about food, 
treatment and occupation. 

"Yes, considering, as you say, that we are pris- 
oners." 

"But, of course, you don't like prison life," was the 
visitor's banal and silly remark, 

"Of course not," he smiled. He was too polite to 
laugh outright. "But we get along very well. Con- 
sidering that we are prisoners, much better than we 
had expected." 

And here is another scrap of conversation with an- 
other French prisoner in this camp : 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 113 

"How do you get along with the German officers 
and guards?" 

"Why, very well," he replied. 

"Do you mean that the relations between you 
Frenchmen and the Germans are good?" was the 
surprised query. 

"Why, yes;" he answered, "that is, our personal re- 
lations. But," he added quickly, "of course that has 
nothing to do with our patriotic feeling. That is 
stronger than ever, if possible." 

Just what this personal good feeling meant in a 
concrete way was seen and heard in a dramatic man- 
ner an hour later. 

Since the subject of food was mentioned in every 
conversation, the question was asked of the German 
commander : 

"What do you give them to eat?" 

"In the morning, bread and coffee ; at midday, bread 
and a thick soup made of potatoes with some other 
vegetable in which, five times a week, meat is included ; 
at evening, bread and a thinner soup. The water, of 
course, is filtered." It was the lack of meat of which 
the English chiefly complained. 

The prisoners' barracks are large, well-built, wooden 
affairs, much better than those occupied by the in- 
terned Belgian soldiers in Holland. But sometimes 
there were two or three tiers of bunks, one above the 
other, supported by heavy upright timbers. The mat- 
tress was made of a rough substance, like gunnysack, 
filled with straw. There were plenty of blankets. 
Several stoves were observed. It was a cold, snowy 



114 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

January day, but the Interior of every barrack visited 
was comfortably warm. 

The prisoners appeared to be well nourished and 
healthy. In two camps and among many hundreds 
of prisoners personally observed only one was found 
who looked in poor health and said that he felt badly — 
a small-statured Russian. The commanders of both 
camps said that as yet little or no sickness had de- 
veloped. 

In one camp a good deal of landscape gardening 
had been done around certain barracks, very tasteful, 
even artistic. 

"You seem to be beautifying your grounds," was 
the casual remark to the German commander. 

"Oh, that is the work of the French. They have 
a gift for it. It is beautiful, isn't it?" answered the 
camp commander, who seemed to be prouder of this 
work of the French prisoners than of anything else, 
except one; although plainly he was proud of his 
whole establishment. 

"The French," he remarked, "are very industrious. 
They are easy to get along with, too. There are some 
very talented men among the French. Look in here, 
for example." 

In a long, wooden building were many men making 
various things from w^ood, with all manner of carpen- 
ters' tools — one sawing, another planing, and so on. 
All this product is sold, the purchase-money going to 
the prisoner who made the article. There were many 
buildings of this kind, where all sorts of handicraft 
are practised, tailoring, shoemaking, the plaiting of 
various useful things from straw. 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 115 

One end of a big room where the carpenters and 
cabinet-makers were at work had been boarded off to 
itself, making a small separate apartment. This was 
the personal workshop of a young French sculptor, 
who at that moment was busy modeling a large 
and rather ambitious piece. His prison studio was 
adorned with a dozen or more of his creations, some 
of them very good. 

This young man talked with great freedom and gave 
a more sensible view of their situation than did his 
mates. 

"Most of the German officers are very nice and con- 
siderate," said he. "Of course, there are some who 
like to show their importance, and these are disagree- 
able." 

"How is your food?" 

"Of course, it isn't famous, but, for a war prisoner, 
it's all right. One must not expect too much in a 
prison camp. It is all for our country — all of this 
as well as the fighting." 

"But you say you are comfortable here — do you 
want to get back to fight?" 

"Very much! Very much indeed!" he answered. 

In the barracks occupied by the prisoners from India 
there was an unusual feature; every Hindu cooks, 
and in every way prepares his own food, for he will 
not eat anything touched by Christian hands. Many 
of them were seen at this private and religious culi- 
nary occupation. The Gourka sergeant in charge of 
this barracks spoke English. He and his comrades 
were treated quite well, he said — much better than 
they had looked for. 



116 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Would he like to get back to India? He would — 
more than anything. 

Why had he come to the war? 

"Orders, sir." 

He good-naturedly interpreted for a group of tall 
grave- faced Sikhs, statues of dignity and gravity. 

Why had they come so far to fight? 

"The service," was the answer ; and the Gourka ser- 
geant tried to make their meaning clear by such ex- 
pressions as "their duty," "their profession," "their 
business." 

As to wanting to go home, one gathered that these 
Sikhs were quite indifferent; that it was all the same 
to them; and that they took things as they happened. 
Kismet ! 

In the barracks where the Turcos lived came the one 
disagreeable, even shocking, surprise of the day. It 
is impossible to imagine more villainous-looking creat- 
ures than these particular prisoners appeared to be. 
Nearly all of them are small men, and most of them 
have viciousness stamped on every feature. Their 
evil eyes follow you, expressionless, unblinking, like 
those of a serpent. 

Some of these men undoubtedly are criminals — the 
forehead, jaw, mouth, back head, and above all, the 
merciless, soulless eyes, spell depravity. 

The Sikhs and Gourkas from India, many of whom 
have fine and even noble features, are infinitely su- 
perior to this scum of northern Africa; for such at 
least most of these particular Turcos must be. There 
are some faces among these African Turcos that are 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 117 

not bad; but most of them justify the harshest descrip- 
tion. It is not thinkable that these are fair samples of 
the native inhabitants of the French African posses- 
sions. 

They are clad in an amazing array of garments — 
here an Arab, a blue mark tattooed on his forehead, 
and wearing the burnoose of the desert; there another 
of a different ethnology, clad in a totally unfamiliar 
uniform of dark blue, with brass buttons; still another 
with the braided jacket and baggy trousers of the 
zouave — and so on throughout as outre a collection 
of costumes as the imagination of a Lewis Carroll 
could picture. 

Stepping out and coming face to face with a group 
of pleasant- faced Frenchmen, their features glowing 
with intelligence, their kindly eyes full of friendliness, 
one seems to confront the best, as opposed to the worst 
in human nature, so sudden and startling is the con- 
trast. And the trim, erect, hearty German officers, 
with their bluff open countenances, do not soften the 
dissimilarity. 

From some distance away there floats the music of 
human voices in song. There are many voices, very 
many voices. They are singing in harmony. You 
listen, astounded. Can you be dreaming? you ask 
yourself — can this be a trick of the brain? 

"Oh!" exclaims the German commander, noting 
your amazement. "That is the French chorus. It is 
exceedingly good, too. Come along and hear them ! I 
am sure they would be glad to have you." 

You go to a long building, much like the barracks, 



118 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

but bare of any furniture within. The gray snowy 
day has begun to decline, and the big room is in the 
gloaming. 

A large number of French soldiers are arranged in 
a semicircle, like a horseshoe magnet. At one point 
are grouped the bassos; at another the tenors; at an- 
other the baritones. Each man holds in his hand a 
sheaf of paper on which are written notes. All are 
singing. 

In the center of this human tuning-fork stands a 
tall, slender French soldier, cap on head, his long blue 
military overcoat draping his figure almost to the floor. 
He is conducting the chorus, his baton rising, falling, 
curving, his figure swaying in time with the harmony. 

So intent is this prisoner chorus on their singing 
that they are not conscious that the camp commander 
and several officers have entered. Their soul is in 
their voices — ^yes, and in their faces, too, which, in 
the dim light, seem to you, in your now uplifted state, 
very refined, very noble. In spirit these uniformed 
disarmed warriors are not at this moment in a prison 
camp at all, nor even in Germany. 

In spirit they are back in France, beloved beautiful 
France. It is of their country they are singing now, 
of their homes, of their adored ones. It is a song 
quarried from the very depths of their beings. They 
have written it themselves, there in the prison camp. 
In the heart of Germany. They have composed the 
music for it themselves, every note of it. Words and 
music are alive, throbbing, passionate, tender, exalted. 

You are deeply touched; you feel as if in an holy 
presence. 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 119 

This song of France and home and loved ones dies 
trembhngly away. For a moment there is silence. 
Then a tenor voice begins a solo. The voice is rich, 
mellow, cultivated, highly trained. It is full of fire, 
pathos, infinite emotion. And the accompaniment ! 
The first impression on your now elevated senses is 
that a great orchestra is hidden near at hand. 

But no ; it is a miracle more extraordinary still. The 
superb tenor is accompanied by human orchestration. 
Those hundreds of French soldiers are humming, their 
mingled tones producing the effect of scores of pieces 
playing in harmony. Never before have you heard the 
Hke of this vocal marvel. 

It ceases. Silence again. Then : "Best congratu- 
lations!" It is the German commander speaking. 
From the background where we stood listening he has 
walked forward and is warmly shaking the soloist's 
hand, as he praises his singing. "Best congratula- 
tions!" he exclaims again in French as he grasps the 
hand of the conductor. And: "Best congratula- 
tions!" once more as first right, then left, he bows to 
the chorus.* 

"Mcrci, monsieur r answers the pleased tenor. And 
"Mcrci, monsieur!" the conductor; and "Merci!" mur- 
mur the men. But all of them wnth dignity! The 
whole scene is very, very fine. No patronage on the 
part of the German commander, no truckling by his 
French charges; but mutual respect and self-respect on 
both sides. 

Another evidence, this, of a staggering fact which 



* The chorus conductor and the tenor were professors of music 
in Paris. 



120 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

has no intelligence in it : The two peoples who are 
shedding one another's blood most freely in this war 
do not appear to dislike one another personally. On 
the contrary, they seem to get on very w^ell together. 
You had noted this in the comments of French women 
in the territory occupied by the Germans, back of their 
w'estern front. You had observed it in the comradery 
between German soldiers and French children in the 
invaded territory. 

Another prisoners' camp was exactly like the first 
you had seen in the food and occupations of the cap- 
tured. But it had no landscape gardening, no sculptor, 
no chorus; perhaps because there were comparatively 
few French or because of the lack of initiative, inven- 
tion and sympathy of the German camp commander. 
Doubtless it was both. 

In this camp the nationalities of the prisoners were 
a,lmost reversed; a large number of English, very 
many Russians, comparatively few French, and no 
Arabs, Ethiopians or Moors. Here the English were 
more cheerful and less complaining than their thirty 
desolate brothers in the first camp visited; but here, 
also, the hostility between English and German was 
even more pronounced. 

"The English are very difficult," the genial com- 
mander of the first camp visited had remarked, and : 

"We can't get along with the English. They won't 
work. They object to everything," was the comment 
of the somewhat rheumatic German commander of 
the second prison camp visited. 

On their part the dislike of the English prisoners 
for the Germans was still more pointed and acid. 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 121 

While most of them frankly said that they thought 
themselves fairly well off as to food and quarters, in 
view of the fact that they were prisoners of war, still 
when one was asked : 

"Would you rather be here or in the trenches?" the 
answer came with a snap : 

"In the trenches, sir. I'd like to get a crack at them, 
sir!" 

And another, this time a sailor, one of fewer than 
a dozen Englishmen actually seen at voluntary work, 
answering the same question, said, sharply : 

"In the trenches with my comrades, sir. Anything 
is better than this." 

In general, the hostility of the English prisoners to 
their German captors was plainly apparent and, in- 
deed, unconcealed. One could not help admiring the 
openness and boldness of it. Conversely, the dislike 
of the German officers and guards for their stubborn 
wards was no less manifest. You could not but like 
the frankness displayed by both. The only difference 
in their mutual dislike seemed to be that the Germans 
gave reasons, such as: "The English won't work." 
Or: "The English are quarrelsome." Or: "The Eng- 
lish fight the French with their fists." Or: "The Eng- 
lish are always complaining." 

On the other hand, with the English antipathy for 
the Germans, it w^as a case of — 

"I do not like you. Doctor Fell ! 
The reason why I can not tell. 
But this one thing I know full well : 
I do not like you. Doctor Fell !" 



122 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Yet it seems that both German and English respect 
each other highly as first-class fighting men. For 
example, take this comment of a German officer at 
Lille, France, noted for his gallantry, which was 
agreed to by his fellow officers : 

"The English whom we have met are good soldiers. 
The officers are fine." 

Reciprocally : "Oh, yes, the Germans fight well 
enough ; like devils, sir," was the comment of an Eng- 
lish prisoner, who had just expressed his animosity 
for the Germans, and, like his comrade already quoted, 
snapped out his earnest wish to "get at them" again. 

"Do you get enough to eat?" you ask a bearded 
English sailor. 

"I suppose so, seeing that we are prisoners of war; 
but not as much as we should like, sir." Fie said he 
got money from home and could buy what he liked in 
the canteen. "But," said he, "we can't get jam, sir." 

"Jam!" you exclaim in surprise. 

"Yes, sir. Jam, sir, and chocolate and such other 
like dainties, sir." 

The camp post-office is the liveliest place of all. Al- 
ways these stations of intelligence seem to be crowded. 
Also, they are disbursement centers. In one camp 
thirty-three thousand marks had been paid to French 
prisoners by the end of the year 1914. This money 
was sent from France by the friends or relatives of the 
captured prisoners. It is not given out in bulk or cash 
by the German officials. Ten marks a week is the 
maximum allowed to a private soldier. At the canteen 
are sold only food and clothing. The sale of intoxi- 
cants of any kind is not permitted. 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 123 

You are surprised at the rosy cheeks and well-nour- 
ished condition of most of the prisoners. The open 
air and exercise have much to do with their phys- 
ical fitness. As far as is possible those who will not 
work voluntarily, making articles which are sold and 
paid for, are required to do labor of some kind. 

Hundreds are compelled to draw and push wagons 
laden with camp provisions. Other hundreds keep 
clean the streets of German cities and the approaching 
roads. Nurenburg is an example of this. But with 
every possible employment only a fraction of Ger- 
many's seven hundred thousand prisoners can be given 
useful occupations during the winter. 

When spring and summer come, however, there will 
be more work to do. It is planned, at least in parts 
of Germany, as in Bavaria, for example, to employ the 
prisoners in tilling the soil, sowing the seed and gath- 
ering the harvest. For this work the French are will- 
ing and the Russians more than eager. No woman, 
child or old man need work in the fields of Germany 
during the present year unless they insist upon doing 
so ; for there are enough prisoners anxious to perform 
that labor in preference to the confinement of the 
camps. 

The Wounded 

But what of the wounded and disabled? Of these, 
by semi-official estimate up to January 15, 1915, there 
were 543,000, of whom 322,000 were only slightly 
wounded, and at that time nearly ready to go to the 
front again; and 221,000 more seriously wounded, of 
which thirty-five per cent, would soon be ready for 



124 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

duty once more. A more generous computation gave 
650,000 wounded, of which sixty per cent., or 390,000 
men, could return to the front within a short time. 

The care of these injured ones is infinitesimal in 
scientific detail and very tender on its human side. 
The best hospital trains are marvels of comfort, con- 
venience, efficiency. In each regulation hospital train 
there are twenty cars. In each car there are beds for 
ten patients. Each bed is suspended on powerful 
springs fixed at the ends so as to absorb the shock. 

Above each bed are two looped straps, in which the 
wounded one may rest his weary arms and hands. In 
a case at the side are glass, water and tooth-brush ; in 
short, no mechanical convenience has been neglected. 
Heartsome pictures are fixed over the mid-doorway, 
so that the eyes of the wounded rest upon soothing 
objects. An abundance of pictorial magazines supply 
reading matter. 

Then, of course, there are operating cars, surgeons' 
cars, with enameled operating tables dazzlingly clean 
and electric lights making the interior brighter than 
day. Above all, on these hospital trains there are 
women nurses, carefully chosen not only for their 
knowledge, nerve and skill, but also for their gift of 
human sympathy. 

These maimed men are promptly cared for before 
reaching hospital trains, in the field hospital, very near 
the scene of the casualty, and next in a division base 
hospital within sound of the firing-line. Go into one 
of these latter establishments of succor. Here a sol- 
dier is recovering and is very happy, almost joyful. 
His only thought, he tells you, is to get back to the 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 125 

fighting. There another is too badly hurt to talk or 
even think. 

Yonder a man lies dying, and he expires in your 
presence; but it does not astonish, for you have seen 
the same thing in the Philippines, down to the smallest 
detail of sunken cheek, stertorious breathing, rattling 
throat and final silence. Also, you have v^ritnessed 
death in New York hospitals, but in more sordid guise 
and without the least tinge of glory or romance. 

But what is this? The general commanding that 
corps comes in. He does not stride. He walks softly. 
He goes to the bedside of a common soldier, sore 
wounded, on whose breast he pins the iron cross with 
words of praise for gallantry. Three times this hap- 
pens. Once the prostrate figure answers with articu- 
late words of thanks. The other two are too sick to 
speak, but appreciation shines from their eyes. 

Finally comes the transfer of the wounded to the 
great permanent hospitals located at central points in 
every large German city. You witness the unloading of 
the maimed from a newly arrived hospital train. 

It is early morning. A chill rain is falling. Two 
or three score men with Red Cross bands on their coat 
sleeves carry the disabled soldiers on stretchers to 
waiting vehicles, which haul them to hospital build- 
ings. There are Red Cross ambulances, luxurious lim- 
ousines, great furniture vans, with reclining places for 
the wounded, much like the beds on the trains. A 
few women, who have relatives in those cars, stand 
patiently about. 

A well-dressed gray-haired man is looking for his 
son, whom he soon finds, desperately hurt, and walks 



126 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

by the stretcher's side to the limousine. There are no 
tears. Each person, man or woman, holds back all 
emotion with a firm hand. Having settled down to 
the business of war, they are doing it in steady fash- 
ion, facing the ugly as well as the stirring with equal 
patience and fortitude. 

Of dozens of convalescing wounded soldiers talked 
to, all but one expressed their eagerness to get back to 
the front. There was no false enthusiasm about 
them; no pretense. You could not doubt their ear- 
nestness and sincerity. The expression of the face, 
tone of voice, above all the look from the eye, left no 
room for doubt. One soldier who had been shot in 
the leg at the battle of Tannenberg, said he was quite 
comfortable where he was — in the hospital. He would 
not be able to walk very well anyhow, he thought, and 
did not seem to regret it. He was the one exception. 

Of the total number of wounded in every way, at 
least sixty per cent, go to the front again. Cautious 
and conservative estimates place the percentage even 
higher — more indeed than seventy per cent. 

The anxiety of the men to return to the firing-line 
equals their desire to get well. Indeed, this state of 
mind has something to do with the quickness of their 
recovery. Great numbers of German soldiers have 
been wounded, treated and have gone back to service 
three separate times. 

Professor Doctor O. Kiliani, of New York, one of 
the principal surgeons with the German forces operat- 
ing near Lille, France, has personally observed many 
cases of this kind. 

The uncomplaining fortitude of the wounded, their 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 127 

astonishing vitality and power of resistance, their 
ardor and determination to get into the fighting again 
as soon as possible, Professor Kiliani thinks the most 
notable physical and psychological facts coming under 
the observation of the scientist. 

Doctor Charles Haddon Sanders, of Washington, 
D. C, head of the American Red Cross hospital at 
Gleiwitz, Germany, on the Russian frontier, testified 
to the same thing. 

"Every man of them," said Doctor Sanders, "is 
anxious to get back to the front and the fighting. 
Not one of them wants to go home. Their spirit 
and confidence are beyond belief. I want to say 
this for these wounded German soldiers whom we 
have operated upon and treated : no patients could be 
more appreciative of what is done for them. They 
are respectful and good-mannered to the highest de- 
gree. I have been impressed by their cleanliness of 
mind and manner. Many of them are highly cul- 
tured men. It is worthy of notice that out of more 
than seven hundred cases only one venereal case de- 
veloped; and this case was contracted in Russian Po- 
land. I think all physicians will say that this is very 
remarkable in an army of invasion." 

Troops in Training 

All over Germany fresh troops are in training. This 
has been going on for many months. Every possible 
detail of every possible experience at the front is gone 
over and over and over, time and time and time again. 
You may see every phase of a real battle, except of 



128 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

course the actual wounding and killing, in the country 
adjoining any one of the innumerable training camps 
scattered throughout the empire; artillery action, 
trench fighting, advances in the open, cavalry work, 
scouting, management of supplies, both food and am- 
munition — in short, every conceivable thing that can 
occur in active service. 

Excepting only casualties, one could take photo- 
graphs on these practice fields and in these training 
camps, or one could write descriptions, and both photo- 
graph and description would faithfully portray scenes 
at and near the battle line, so exactly are conditions 
at the front reproduced. 

The thoroughness of this training of the common 
soldier can not be put too strongly or too often. When 
finally the recruit is allowed to go to the scene of 
action he already is a seasoned soldier, except for the 
experience of hearing and feeling hostile lead and 
steel. 

For most of these men have had much physical and 
disciplinary education. Therefore, in these camps 
at present the theory of warfare is reduced to prac- 
tice, the theory itself being carefully modified by ac- 
tual experience in the present war. It is reasonably 
safe to say that the German soldier of 1915 will be a 
more efficient man than was his comrade who rallied 
to the colors last August. 

As to military training, it should be noted that schol- 
ars like the great theologian, Professor von Harnack, 
or the Socialist, Doctor Siidekum, think it is so good 
a thing for developing health, strength and efficiency 



SOME FRUITS OF WAR 129 

that the German people are more than repaid for this 
investment. 

"Aside from the mihtary phase — if no army were 
needed and no war possible — I should earnestly favor 
our system of military training, physically, mentally 
and morally, as a vital part of our educational sys- 
tem," said Professor von Harnack. 

If such a thing were possible, the instruction and 
drill of those preparing to be officers is far more care- 
ful and complete than the exacting and exhaustive 
military schooling given the common soldier. These 
future officers are spared no hardship. They are 
toughened and seasoned quite as much as the men 
whom they soon are to command. 

You study with keen interest company after com- 
pany of these young men who are striving for commis- 
sions. You are struck by the high intelligence of their 
faces; character and education are written on every 
feature. 

Their bearing is manful and soldierly. Germany's 
worst enemy could not fail to be impressed by the ap- 
pearance of these men, even though he looked at them 
through the glasses of hatred. 

These things are stated only because they are facts, 
precisely as one might describe any fact, such as a 
tree, bridge, railway train, house, field, hill. 

Of the hundreds studied in one immense training 
camp in January of 1915, none looked younger than 
twenty or older than thirty. From their appearance 
and conduct they seemed to be fine soldier stock. 

Mo one but the military authorities knows the num- 



130 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ber of men now in training. Certainly it is very great. 
And waiting eagerly for their turn are hundreds upon 
hundreds of thousands. To the casual and unskilled 
observer, ignorant of military things, there seems to 
be no end of men in Germany. 

These may or may not be fit war material — you do 
not know personally. But as to numbers, they at least 
seem to be myriads; as to appearance, they are be- 
yond unskilled criticism. 

By careful questioning in every available quarter, 
and in different parts of Germany, during several 
weeks, and piecing together, weighing and testing in- 
formation thus garnered, the conclusion seems justi- 
fied that Germany expects to keep five million men ac- 
tively in the field, year in and year out, no matter how 
long the war lasts. By five million is meant soldiers 
and officers as well trained as those called to the colors 
last August. All this, too, in the regular ordinary 
course of events, without straining her human re- 
sources. Another chapter deals in more detail with 
this feature of the war. 



VI 

A PEOPLE AT WAR* 

II KE the other chapters of this book, this one is 
J a record of facts as they existed at the time 
described, without any expression of opinion by the 

writer. 

A faithful portrayal of actual situations can be 
made only by seeing "with the eyes of a child," as 
an eminent American editor expressed it, and stating 
what is thus seen and heard. To make facts fit a pre- 
conceived and cherished theory or prejudice is to dis- 
tort and misrepresent them. What, then, is the 
German situation at the date of this narrative? 

On entering Germany the last week of the fifth 
month of the war, what apparently were three great 
facts rose like mountain peaks from a level plain. So 
impossible did these seem, to one stepping directly 
from American soil on to German soil, that many 
weeks were spent in painstaking effort to find whether 
they were realities or only illusions created by the 
abnormal atmosphere of war. 

In the search for truth in the wilderness of rumor, 
misstatement and speculation, which armed conflict 

* Written at Berne, Switzerland, February 12, 1915. 

131 



132 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

always creates, the value of testing is as great as that 
of observing, and conservative estimate and under- 
statement become not only a virtue, but a necessity. 

In this spirit, then, and with this method, investiga- 
tion was made throughout, day in and day out, night in 
and night out, for many weeks. No available source of 
first-hand information was overlooked. The people 
themselves were studied personally and directly; So- 
cialist as well as capitalist, artisan and manufacturer, 
banker and common laborer, business man and scholar, 
obscure servant and celebrated author, wives and 
daughters of working men, and women of title and 
position — the opinion of all these was secured. 

This opinion was everywhere the same. Not one 
break was found in the solidarity of sentiment. And 
this conviction (for it amounted to conviction) 
formed the three facts, meaningful, surprising, even 
startling, which confronted the newly arrived from 
America during the first five weeks of the year 1915. 

Neither retrospection nor prophecy is here ventured. 
What is to be, Clotho is spinning. What has been, 
Atropos has severed. But what one knows, as a 
present and existing truth (February, 1915), may be 
stated as such. So: 

First. The German people are an unit in support of 
this war. In this matter nearly seventy million men, 
women and children think, feel and act as a single 
being. With the Germans this is a people's war. 
"With us it is the German working men's war," said 
Doctor Albert Siidekum, leader of the German Social 
Democratic party. Professor von Harnack, the great 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 133 

German theologian, was right when he said that the 
world has seldom seen anything like it.* 

With respect to the war, the government and all the 
people are in harmony, absolute and unbroken. And 
this oneness of thought and feeling goes to the ulti- 
mate and the final, to the carrying on of the war no 
matter for how long, nor at what cost, until Germany 
wins. 

Second. The German people believe that they will 
triumph. They are as sure of victory as they are of 
the process of the seasons. This appeared to be in- 
credible to an American arriving in Germany with 
the American view of the situation. But, search long 
and carefully as one might with the microscope of in- 
credulity, not one flake of doubt was found on the 
bright armor of the German people's faith. It will 
be hard, very hard, for Americans to believe this ; but 
it is so. And with this sureness of the outcome, 
indeed as a part of their certainty, goes a determina- 
tion to win. It can be felt. It is the psychological 
and spiritual atmosphere of Germany. 

Yet there is no excitement among the people. The 
war is not on their nerves. On the contrary, there 
is a vast composure. They have settled down to the 
finishing of this war as though it were their one great 
business — which indeed it is, exactly as it were a mat- 
ter of industry, commerce, science, in which they have 
succeeded so wonderfully. No effort is spared, but 
also no effort is wasted. 



* See Chapters VII and VIII on "German Thought Back of 
the War." 



134 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

At the heart of this amazing phenomenon, so quiet 
and purposeful, is a passion that is all but religious. 
It is a strange mingling of the practical and poetic, a 
composite of the thoughtful and the mystical, the sim- 
ple and the sublime. In short, it is the German 
character of tradition, moved from its profoundest 
depths to its highest manifestation. 

Third. The German people feel and believe that 
they have been wronged. The German people say 
that they did not want this war, nor any war.* They 
are convinced that they are the victims of a monstrous 
plot, hatched in a foreign country, to destroy modern 
Germany. 

To every German this means the ruin of hiniself 
and his family. He feels that he is fighting not only 
for his country, his ideals, his civilization, but also for 
his sheer physical existence, and that of his loved ones. 

The German people believe that England is the 
arch-enemy who, in the final analysis, brought this 
catastrophe upon them. Man, woman and child lay 
their misfortunes at England's door. In their Ger- 
man way they have brooded over the wrong which 
they regard England as responsible for, until their 
feeling has become that of hatred. This feeling is 
growing stronger and deeper all the time. If it 
should continue to increase for any considerable 
period it is possible that it may become a settled ani- 
mosity lasting for generations. 

About these three central facts are lesser, but still 
important, facts. 



* See Chapters VII and VIII on "German Thought Back of 
the War." 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 135 

For example, although France has caused Germany 
her heaviest losses, and although Germany has dealt 
France her heaviest blows, yet from the western to 
the eastern battle fronts, from Hamburg to Munich, 
not one unkind word was heard of the French. The 
expressions were almost friendly — certainly sympa- 
thetic and without patronage. 

The feeling of the German people is that the French 
ought not to be in the war, and would not be, except 
for the Russian alliance and their enormous invest- 
ments in Russia ; and even more, except for the machi- 
nations of England. 

The consensus of German opinion is that the French 
have no logical place in the conflict. The Germans 
declare that France would not have been attacked ex- 
cept for the certainty that France would have attacked 
Germany to help France's ally, Russia, as France's 
alliance with Russia bound France to do. But, funda- 
mentally, the Germans think no real ground of con- 
flict exists between Germany and France. Except 
for diplomatic alliances and intrigues, the Germans 
are sure France would not be in this war. 

Strangely enough, there is no great animosity 
against the Russians. Most of this has been over- 
come by the German people's resentment toward Eng- 
land. The Germans say that the millions of Russian 
soldiers do not know what they are fighting for, but 
only do what they are told to do; and that in this 
instance it is Russia's grand dukes who have done the 
telling. Here, again, to the German mind, England 
once more appears as the master manipulator. Rus- 
sia, they say, would not have acted if she had not been 



136 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

sure of England's support. As to the Russian mu- 
diik, who is the Russian common soldier, the Germans 
have a pity for and sympathy with him, "Poor 
devil !" they say, "he has no chance and never did 
have any chance; can not read or write, and is not 
allowed to learn," and so forth and so on. 

Another example of these smaller but important 
facts is the state, or rather the progress toward a 
state, of the German mind toward America. The 
Germans considered us friends. On this point Ger- 
man thought runs about as follows : 

There are so many million Germans who are Amer- 
ican citizens ; there never had been any conflict between 
America and Germany, whereas there have been wars 
or estrangements between America and each of the na- 
tions allied against Germany ; Frederick the Great was 
the first to recognize American independence ; the eco- 
nomic and humanitarian reforms which were the 
objectives of the popular movement in America during 
the last decade were German in their origin and ex- 
ample; Germany was a heavy customer of the United 
States, etc. — such is the outline of the reasons for the 
German people's opinion that the American people 
were their friends. 

So when American public sentiment showed itself 
unfriendly to them the Germans were surprised and 
hurt. For a long time they could not believe it. They 
were almost childlike in their incredulity of American 
hostility. They make all sorts of excuses for it — as 
that our language is English; or that the German 
cable was cut and we were not able to get the truth; 
or that our press received its news from English 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 137 

sources, and is, therefore, pro-English; or that our 
wealthy social class go always to London or Paris, and 
that our general public unconsciously gets its impres- 
sions of other countries from these moneyed and so- 
cially ambitious by-products of our democracy. 

"Oh, of course, you don't know us — you never come 
to see us and stay long enough to get acquainted ; you 
like London and Paris better and they are nearer and 
easier to reach." One heard such explanatory com- 
ments all the time. And : 

"The English give you your news — false news. 
What chance has the truth to reach you?" was another 
frequent remark. 

"It is tragic," said a German scholar, "how the 
English control your opinion through your press. 
During the Russo-Japanese War England told you to 
hate Russia, and you hated Russia. Now she tells 
you to love Russia, and you love Russia. When will 
America awake from being the international Trilby 
under the influence of the international Svengali?" 

As to the stories of German "atrocities" — the Ger- 
mans at first simply did not think that we could be- 
lieve them ; the}^ at first did not conceive It to be possi- 
ble that we could credit the tales about German "bar- 
barism." Still, there was no animosity. 

This latter feeling has begun to show itself only in 
the last month or two (February, 1915). This is 
chiefly due to our sale of food and munitions of war 
to Germany's enemies, especially powder and guns. 
It is the firm belief of the German people that the war 
would now be over if we had not done this. They 
are sure that It would be over In a very short time if 



138 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

we would stop doing it. And they can not see why 
we should do it — it benefits no American, say the Ger- 
mans, except the American producer of war material. 

"American shells are killing our sons," say German 
parents ; "American ammunition is desolating German 
homes ; Germany's enemies are fighting with American 
weapons." Such is the comment and such the feeling 
among the German people. 

For many weeks it has been common talk among 
private soldiers as well as officers, on both the western 
and eastern battle lines, that it is American powder 
hurling the enemy's bullets. 

This has spread throughout Germany until now 
(February, 1915), there is a genuine feeling of re- 
sentment. The sentiment is growing that we are, for 
practical purposes, the ally of England, or rather, the 
tool of England. How deeply rooted this will become 
it is, of course, impossible to say. 

But it always should be taken into account when 
trying to gauge German feeling that the Germans 
firmly believe that they are fighting for their very 
lives. Whether one agrees with them or not is of 
no consequence whatever in sounding the heart of the 
German people ; but to understand them it is necessary 
always to remember that, to them, this war is a ques- 
tion of life or death. 

What are the foundations of the basic facts — the 
German people's solid support of the war, their faith 
in victory, their blame of England? To avoid polem- 
ics, let us consider only the first two. 

The solidarity of German opinion and resolve in 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 139 

support of the war will appear to Americans in its 
real importance and proportion when we recall that 
in our own wars there has always been outspoken, 
organized and sometimes violent opposition : witness 
our revolutionary war; our conflict with France; our 
second war with Great Britain, and our wars with 
Mexico and Spain. But there is no such division as 
that in Germany, nor any trace of it. 

Yet the German thinks for himself and speaks his 
mind, and follows speech with act ; witness the growth 
of the Social Democratic party — its frequent opposi- 
tion, in the past, to measures and policies of the gov- 
ernment. Witness, too, the stubborn opposition of 
the agrarian group to the tariff policy of Caprivi. And 
these are only moderate examples. The expression 
of German feeling in domestic affairs always has been 
stubborn and fierce; recall Bebel's dramatic denuncia- 
tion of an Imperial Chancellor on the floor of the 
Reichstag a few years ago — and even more stirring 
incidents since that time. 

The notion that the German is a submissive creature, 
w^ith no opinions except those handed him from above 
and with no courage to express an independent idea, 
even if he had one, is absurdly inaccurate. We Amer- 
icans might realize this if we were to reflect that our 
neighbors of German birth or blood are exactly hke 
their kin folk in Germany. Also suppose we consult 
history. 

To-day there are no political parties in Germany, 
and will not be until after the war is ended; see the 
statements of Socialists in Chapter VIII. It may al- 



140 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

most be said that creeds have ceased to exist, as far 
as rehgiotis antagonism is concerned, during this flam- 
ing and thmidering period. 

PoHtical hostihties and rehgious differences will 
again raise their heads after peace is restored. But at 
present, Socialist and Conservative, Protestant and 
Catholic, Jew and gentile, are fighting literally side by 
side, falling side by side, and are laid to rest side by 
side in a common grave. 

"Not only are Protestant ministers and Catholic 
priests at the front, but Jewish rabbis as well," said 
(Catholic) Father Pfafifenbuchler, of Munich, who 
was about to return to the battle front, where he him- 
self had been officiating. 

The Protestant church services, crowded to over- 
flowing, are equaled by the Catholic masses. Catholic 
Bavaria is as determined as Protestant Prussia. In- 
deed, the fusing of creeds in Germany by the fires of 
war is perhaps the most notable feature of the conflict. 
The surface is barely touched if the religious element 
is not considered in the German situation. 

What, then, has forged these scores of millions of 
thoughtful, studious, conservative people into this rod 
of iron? The historian will write a brilliant chapter 
in answering this question. 

The German vision of the Cossack menace; the crim- 
son history of the German people, woven through 
with the black of foreign oppression, all of which is 
a living tradition in every German home ; the circle 
of enemies that surrounds her and always has ; her 
united independence, economically and politically en- 
joyed for the first time, thanks, as the Germans think, 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 141 

to her military preparedness and unity during the last 
half century; the German fear of the impending de- 
struction of this by a new combination of historic foes 
— the future annalist will weave all this material and 
much more into thrilling narrative. 

But the one present, immediate and overmastering 
reason is the latter — the German people's deep and 
undoubting conviction that they have been wronged; 
the universal and unwavering feeling that their enemies 
mean to crush them and destroy Germany. 

The Germans feel that they are fighting for their 
lives — literally that. It Is necessary to repeat this fre- 
quently In order that the American reader may cor- 
rectly gauge German solidarity and determination. As 
to their having planned conquest themselves, you all 
but insult the German people by mentioning the 
thought, so libelous does it seem to them. 

Here Is the German people's profound conviction 
at the present moment (February 12, 1915), aside 
from the other elemental and historic sources of Ger- 
man feeling: They had made themselves prosperous 
and powerful by hard work, method and economy; 
their master enemy, England, could not meet them in 
fair competition; so England arranged the alliance 
which Is now trying to annihilate them. The character 
of this combination has given a hardness and an edge 
to German resentment. 

"Here we are," they say, "we Germans, assailed by 
Russian and French, English and Japanese, the Af- 
rican and the Indian, their customs, Ideals and re- 
ligions different and hostile to one another; yet this 
unholy alliance is directed against us!" 



142 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

The German thinks this unnatural and diabolical. 
To be compelled to fight Slav, Latin and English is to 
the German mind bad enough : to add the Japanese is 
intolerable; but to bring also against him African 
Arabs, Ethiopians and Moors, and Indian Sikhs and 
Gourkas is, in the German's eye, nothing short of in- 
famous. 

And all this against the Germanic blood, ideals, civ- 
ilization — "The ends of earth are harnessed against 
us," say the Germans. "The riff-raff of Asia and 
Africa are marshalled by English, Latin and Slav to 
stamp out the Germanic people. And we are forced to 
meet with arms this array of racial hatred and com- 
mercial envy." 

Yet, strange circumstance, the German does not rave 
or rage about it. There is a moderation which aston- 
ishes. For example : no vile cartoons or indecent 
prints are to be seen. It is said that a few did appear 
soon after the outbreak of hostilities; but these 
promptly and sternly were suppressed. Attendance 
upon eleven moving-picture shows during January, 
1915, revealed nothing coarse or even unseemly. 

More surprising still to the American sojourning in 
what he thought an autocratic country in war time, 
were the books displayed for sale in the largest book- 
shop of Berlin. Not only were many such serious anti- 
German books to be purchased as Why We Are At 
War: Great Britain's Case, by members of the Ox- 
ford Faculty of Modern History, and Arnold Ben- 
nett's Liberty: A Statement of the British Case, but 
a number of such vivid anti-German novels as The 
Kaiser's Spy, by William LeQueux, and such essen- 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 143 

tially patriotic English works as the late William Er- 
nest Henley's For England's Sake. Also, the leading 
English and French papers were for sale. 

But the faith of the German people in their success 
in this war is more surprising than any other fact of 
any kind to be found in all Germany. The Germans 
are absolutely certain of victory. This can not be said 
too often, if a true account be given to Americans of 
the German state of mind. The Germans have no 
doubt at all about it. For a long time, the American 
on the ground simply can not grasp this spiritual fact ; 
for although carefully reasoned out, this certainty that 
they will prevail is more spiritual than intellectual. 

The investigator who leaves out of his research the 
moral forces moving the German people has omitted 
the largest element of their strength. The spiritual 
and moral is a vital part of the German people's con- 
viction that they will win. For it is a conviction. 

It staggers and confounds the American student of 
this tremendous phenomenon. It does not seem pos- 
sible that the German people can hope to withstand, 
much less to overcome the mighty combination that 
opposes them — to the American it is not thinkable. But 
the German firmly believes that Germany will be tri- 
umphant. 

If this belief were voiced only by officials, one 
might think it a mere exaggeration, born of zeal and 
the heat of action. But when the financier outdoes 
even the cabinet minister or commanding general, and 
the working man outdoes both; when Catholic and 
Protestant, Social Democrat and conservative cap- 
italist, leaders of scholarship and the most poorly in- 



144 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

formed peasant, all hold this common opinion — that 
Germany will win; when above all the faith of the 
women is found to be so simple and unquestioning that 
it resembles an instinct, one confronts a mass of senti- 
ment so mighty and so solid that one must admit its 
existence, no matter how impossible it seems nor how 
unreal it at first appears. Also, one must respect it, 
whether one agrees with it or not. 

Upon what, then, does this faith of the German peo- 
ple in German victory rest? Of what is it composed? 
Let us consider, first, the more tangible elements of 
this amazing state of mind of a whole people. For 
this belief of the German people that Germany will 
triumph is not a thoughtless impulse. It is not the 
product of a scatter-brained enthusiasm. It could not 
be that, considering the nature of the German intellect 
and character. Let no one imagine that the moral and 
spiritual dynamics now displaying their power among 
seventy million conservative men and women is a 
mere obsession or an emotional intoxication. Far 
from it. The German has also counted the material 
cost, and calculated carefully his resources. 

First of all, of course, is the incalculable advantage 
to Germany that the war is being fought on the soil 
of the hostile countries. To the unskilled observer 
studying parts of the battle line on both fronts, it 
seems very difficult for the Allies to drive the Germans 
from their positions. The conclusion appears reason- 
able that the attempt to do so will cost the Allies heavy 
loss. 

Also, the country occupied furnishes much of the 
provisions consumed by the German army; and, when 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 145 

spring, summer and fall arrive, will supply consider- 
ably more. 

When one considers that the richest departments of 
France are occupied by the Germans, one may under- 
stand the economic as well as military strength this 
fact gives the invaders. The best coal fields and other 
mineral deposits, the most fertile agricultural region, 
the most extensive manufacturing plants, the largest 
steel and metal concerns of France are in German 
hands. Much of the food producing part of Russian 
Poland is also in the possession of the Germans. 

Assume that the French, Russians and English drive 
the Germans back over scores of murderous miles, to 
the first German line of defense on German soil, with 
the frightful carnage such a feat of arms probably 
would cost the Allies; still, for the Germans, the war 
zvoiild then only begin from the military defensive 
view. 

Thus one may comprehend this element of German 
confidence — that thus far the war has been and is be- 
ing waged in Russia and France and that German soil 
is, as yet, practically untouched. 

As another example, take the money question. The 
German people are infinitely proud of the fact that 
their financial condition was such that it was not nec- 
essary for Germany to declare a moratorium; while 
practically every other country in Europe, neutral as 
well as belligerent, and even some South American 
countries, found it necessary to proclaim this drastic 
suspension of the payment of debt. 

Also, when war came an astonishing amount of gold 
was brought out by the people themselves. The bank- 



146 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ers, even the government, were surprised. Nobody 
thought there was such a store of gold in Germany. 
The people, it appeared, had taken a lesson from the 
French, whose ability to pay promptly the crushing 
war indemnity of 1871, astonished the world. So, in 
the present crisis, out from almost every German home 
came little sums of gold, until the total swelled into 
an huge current by the time it reached the Reichsbank. 

Thus, on July 31, 1914, the gold stock of this Im- 
perial Bank amounted to 1,250,000,000 marks; while 
on January 15, 1915, its stock of gold amounted to 
2,130,000,000 marks; and at this writing (February 
12, 191 5 ), it is going higher all the time. 

Of this increase only 205,000,000 marks came from 
the war treasure at Spandau. The gold cover of the 
Reichsbank's notes increased during the first five and 
one-half months of the war from forty- three per cent, 
to forty-six and four-tenths per cent. 

Since 1907, her financiers have been strengthening 
Germany's financial condition, increasing Germany's 
stock of gold in the banks as rapidly as possible. The 
reason for this action had nothing to do with war un- 
til 1911 ; but was caused by American financial condi- 
tions, revealed by our panic of 1907. 

"That taught us a lesson," said President Haven- 
stein, of the Reichsbank. But after the summer of 
1911, when war was averted so narrowly, the contin- 
uing strengthening of Germany's finances took into 
consideration also this possibility. Thus, owing to the 
foresight of Germany's financiers, the Reichsbank's 
gold reserve at the outbreak of hostilities was very 
large. But the extraordinary increase of gold reserve 



A PEOPLE AT. WAR 147 

since the war began has come, mostly, from the peo- 
ple. 

The war loan brought in almost double the amount 
expected and still the store of gold in the hands of the 
people has not been exhausted. In January, 1915, it 
was estimated that the people still had in reserve more 
than they already had voluntarily produced. Business 
men asserted that every mark of the people's yellow 
hoardings would be forthcoming when need of it ap- 
peared and the request was made. 

Also, a system of loan and mortgage banks has been 
established upon whose certificates, when in the course 
of circulation they reach the Reichsbank, a fixed 
amount of notes may be issued. The securities back 
of these certificates are so carefully safeguarded that 
cautious and conservative, even timid, bankers con- 
sider this money sound. 

Then, too, it should be noted that virtually all this 
gold, silver and notes, is kept in Germany. 

''Our investments abroad," said Doctor Karl Helffe- 
rich, of the Deutsche Bank, the brilliant young 
financier who, recently, has 'been appointed Minister 
of Finance, "are more than enough to pay our foreign 
purchases or debts." 

The money received by the government on its war 
loan is paid out to the soldiers, who send most of it 
home, when it is again invested in government se- 
curities; or, to the makers of war materials who also 
again invest it in the same manner. Thus, Germany's 
war debt, no matter how large it may become, will be 
owned in Germany, by the German people. 

As to the method of paying that debt and distribut- 



148 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ing its burdens when the war is over, the people them- 
selves will have much to say. Already there is talk 
of nationalizing certain basic industries and paying 
the war debt from their profits.* At any rate the ex- 
penses of the war had not begun to frighten the Ger- 
man people in February, 1915. Apparently they were 
not even concerned. H they felt apprehension they 
concealed that emotion with marvelous art. 

Business reflects the financial condition. 

"When I came to Berlin, I made a deposit in the 
Deutsche Bank," said one of our military observers in 
Germany; "this morning I found that I had more to 
my credit than I had deposited." 

Two per cent, is paid on checking accounts, three 
per cent, on time accounts. Dividends of banking and 
industrial corporations are, on the average, two per 
cent, less than for 1913; the other two per cent, being 
passed to surplus. The interest paid on loans made by 
mortgage banks, loaning on real estate, is said to be 
from eighty-six to ninety-five per cent, of peace times. 

Very few business failures have occurred, so few 
indeed that they are considered negligible. In Ham- 
burg, for example, there has been no failure; yet it 
would seem that Hamburg, as a shipping point, would 
have been the hardest hit of any German city. The 
Roland Line (steamship), of Bremen, actually paid a 
dividend of four per cent, in the fall of 1914. 

In Berlin, the Siemens Electric, two months after 
the war broke out, declared a six and five-tenths per 
cent, dividend, the same as for 1913. At the same time 



* See last chapter of this book. 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 149 

the Pantzenhofer stores declared a dividend of eleven 
per cent, against fifteen per cent, the year before. 

But such figures do not, of course, represent the real 
condition of business. Many conservative business 
men estimate that manufactures, trade and commerce 
not connected with the war are only about fifty per 
cent, of normal; and German exports at about one- 
half normal, which would seem to be very heavy in- 
deed. These exports go to or through neighboring 
neutral countries. 

These estimates of domestic commerce and export 
trade appear exaggerated but they are the deliberate 
judgment of the most cautious and well informed men 
in Germany. The railway receipts would seem to jus- 
tify them. This barometer of business registered the 
following: for December, 1914, from messenger 
traffic, the receipts were seventy-eight and twelve one- 
hundredths per cent, of the same month of 1913, of 
which only five and seventy-eight one-hundredths per 
cent, was for military transportation; from freight 
traffic the receipts were ninety-five and forty- four one- 
hundredths per cent, of those of December, 1913, of 
which only four and fifty-four one-hundredths per 
cent, was for military carriage. 

The Germans also count it a source of great strength 
that all their necessities can be produced in Germany. 
They would be helped, of course, they say, if they 
could get larger supplies from other countries than 
they do receive ; but they assert, and with infinite sat- 
isfaction, that they are not forced to depend on out- 
side help to carry on the struggle "as, declare the Ger- 
mans, is the case with the Allies. 



150 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

If their enemies were given no aid in war munitions 
and food, the Germans are convinced that the AlHes 
quickly would collapse. "Germany," said Doctor Helf- 
ferich, "is peculiarly fortunate in supplying the re- 
quirements of the war nearly entirely by her own pro- 
duction, an advantage which hardly any one of her 
enemies enjoys." In short, Germany can depend on 
herself if compelled to do so, while her foes must rely 
on help from neutral countries, proudly say the Ger- 
mans. 

To the observer, food appears to be abundant and 
prices surprisingly low, considering that a state of war 
exists. On the dining car from Berlin to Posen, Jan- 
uary twenty-second, large veal cutlets, with rice, as- 
paragus and beans, cost two marks, or fifty cents. 

On January twenty-sixth, in a people's restaurant in 
Berlin, a very large pork steak, with sauerkraut and 
lentils, cost ninety pfennigs, about twenty-two cents; 
three shirred eggs cost sixty pfennigs, about fifteen 
cents, and half a young pheasant, with vegetables, was 
one and one-half marks, or thirty-seven cents. These 
examples are typical of a bill of fare containing more 
than one hundred twenty dishes. With each order of 
meat went a generous slice of bread. 

By taking meals at a large number of popular eating 
places, in various cities throughout Germany during 
several weeks, it was found that prices as well as quan- 
tity and quality of food did not vary perceptibly. The 
bread was noticeably darker in color, from five per 
cent, to ten per cent, of potato flour being used in its 
making. The Central Market in Berlin, during the 
latter part of January, displayed immense quantities 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 151 

of provisions of every variety, from newly-killed deer 
and other game yet undressed, and every other kind of 
meat, down to cabbages, cheese, butter and potatoes. 

Soon after the outbreak of the war, a law was 
passed fixing a maximum price on basic necessities of 
life, a measure particularly advocated by the Socialists. 
The latter part of January and the early part of Feb- 
ruary, the government, by law, took over such food- 
stuffs. The large quantities of food served in restau- 
rants, and seen in markets, shops and Inns, made this 
law appear unnecessary. 

Careful inquiry suggested the conclusion that this 
government food monopoly is a precautionary measure, 
directed to next year and the year after, more than to 
the present. It w^ould seem to be another of the many 
evidences which delving beneath the surface brings to 
light that Germany is preparing for a long war. And 
just this is the opinion of exceptionally cautious men. 

No one was found who feared that Germany can be 
starved. This confidence in her food resources does 
not seem unreasonable. The German has used applied 
science in agriculture as brilliantly as in manufactur- 
ing. For example : the production of wheat was fifty- 
four per cent, more per acre in 1908-1912 than in 1886- 
1890 and much greater than that of any other country. 
This, too, despite the inferior quality of German soil. 

Take one more out of a large number of similar 
items: in 1913, a little less than eight per cent, of the 
wheat and rye consumed in Germany was imported; 
but the per capita consumption of wheat and rye in 
Germany had increased more than thirty per cent, from 
1886-1890 to 1908-1912. If, then, the present ordi- 



152 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

nary consumption were reduced eight per cent, (repre- 
senting the amount imported) there still would remain 
a quantity of wheat and rye produced in Germany 
twenty-two per cent, more per capita than the German 
people consumed per capita twenty-five years ago, and 
more than is now consumed in most other countries; 
considerably more, for example, than in Great Britain 
and Ireland. 

These are only a few of the many reasons why the 
German people feel easy on the food question. As they 
look upon it at the present moment, they can carry 
the war on indefinitely as far as food is concerned. 

As for the ammunition : The unsparing use of it, 
as personally observed on both eastern and wes-tern 
fronts, suggested no shortage. On the contrary, to 
the untrained looker-on, the Germans seemed to have 
an unlimited supply. Also German scientists are at 
work on the ammunition question. They are reclaim- 
ing nitrate from the air. It is believed that three such 
factories are already at work,''' and that several more 
will be in operation before summer. 

Many Americans have supposed that the Allies 
would exhaust Germany's ammunition supply; but in 
January, 1915, that did not appear to be probable. In 
considering this vital subject one should never over- 
look the unknown resources and the wizard-like re- 
sourcefulness of the German laboratory. Back of the 
German gun is the German test-tube; back of the Ger- 
man artilleryman is the German chemist. 

Oil, too, engages the constructive thought of Ger- 
man science; though one received the impression that 
♦February 12, 1915. 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 153 

the Germans have more oil than the authorities are 
wining to have generally known. Certainly, no lack of 
its products was apparent at the front during the sixth 
month of the war. But, be that as it may, here again 
the fortunes of war favor the German scientist — some 
substance has been found in France, from which it is 
said a valuable substitute is being manufactured. 

From other hitherto unused materials a substitute 
for benzine is being made. The thousands of taxicabs 
and traffic automobiles dashing about German cities 
are run by alcohol. Wood and potatoes furnish un- 
limited supplies of this spirit. In other ways nature 
is yielding to German science, resources unused or un- 
known before the exigencies of war stimulated their 
discovery. 

Those who think of this war only in terms of men, 
horses and guns are following ancient formulas. In 
Germany, at least, the chemist and analyst are as po- 
tent as courage of private soldier or genius of field 
marshal. 

Take now the copper problem : Germany produces 
in ordinary times about forty thousand and imports 
two hundred thousand tons, annually, most of which is 
manufactured and exported. Thus the conclusion ap- 
pears to be reasonable that, at the outbreak of war, 
there were considerably more than two hundred thou- 
sand tons of crude or freshly manufactured copper. 
Cut this estimate in half and there still would be 
enough for one 3^ear's warfare, upon the most extrava- 
gant calculation for military uses. Also, there is in 
Germany, in various forms, such as copper roofing, 
brass furnishings, etc., a very large supply of copper. 



154 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

For example, as General Director Albert Ballin, of 
the Hamburg-American Line, pointed out, the copper 
wires of the electric street-car lines alone would fur- 
nish one hundred twenty thousand tons, enough for 
nearly thirteen months. All this is on the assumption 
that Germany had laid up no copper for military pur- 
poses, against the possible contingency of war. 

But what of Germany's supply of men? Out of 
several estimates, none of them official, let us examine 
the most conservative one — conservative in the sense 
of putting the worst face on the situation. Some Ger- 
mans will say that it is extreme in its conservatism, 
expressed in terms of pessimism. 

This computation places Germany's total loss, up to 
January 1, 1915, at 850,000 men in round numbers, of 
which seventeen per cent, were killed, eighteen per 
cent, missing and sixty-five per cent, were wounded. 
Of the wounded, sixty per cent, have returned to duty. 

To be on the safe side, let us add 150,000 men to 
this estimate, making a total of 1,000,000. This 
would mean 650,000 wounded, sixty per cent, of 
whom, or 340,000 men, have returned to service, leav- 
ing 610,000 men as the total number killed, missing 
or incapacitated for further service. This reckoning 
places the German loss for 1915 at 900,000 or 1,500,- 
000 men from the beginning of the war up to January 
1, 1916; the reduction of casualties for 1915 is based 
on greater prudence and experience of the men in 
action. 

Assuming that there are 5,000,000 under arms, Ger- 
many has about 1,500,000 men additional, ready for 
service every year, in ordinary course. So that, accord- 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 155 

ing to this estimate, Germany can always keep more 
than 5,000,000 men in the field — at least up to 1921 — 
without straining her resources in men ; and more than 
5,000,000 at any one time can not be used to advantage. 

The estimate here quoted considers even extreme 
and desperate emergency : it calculates from critical 
and exhaustive study of historic data, that a country 
hard pressed can put from seventeen per cent, to twenty 
per cent, of its population in the field. Seventeen per 
cent, of 68,000,000 people, Germany's present popula- 
tion, is 11,560,000; and that many German men would 
go to the front if Germany needed them. 

But the firmest foundation of their faith in victory 
is the spirit of the German people. Germany's most 
remorseless enemy would not deny this if, unknown, 
he could mingle with the masses. To the neutral and 
impartial observer, this German spirit flames to the 
heavens like some elemental and sacred fire. Already, 
it is producing a literature of such quality that one 
may read in it the prophecy of another notable period 
in German letters. It is a people's literature ; it comes 
from the homely German fireside, and from the 
trenches, where men are dying. 

Poems have appeared, written by hands unfamiliar 
with the pen, yet charged with a tenderness, courage 
and sacrificial spirit that no mere word-craftsman 
could have fused into polished verse. 

Letters of parents to sons and of yoyths to parents 
exhibit these same qualities even more clearly. Here 
is an extract from a letter by a German father to his 
son, who, though at the front, was serving, under or- 
ders, as a chauffeur : 



156 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Why don't you write us about the battlefield in any 
of your letters? Aren't you going to get into the firing- 
line in your present command? . . . Think of your 
brother, August, who volunteered for patrol duty and 
was killed by the enemy's bullet! I mourn for him 
but I am proud that, in doing a brave act, he gave his 
life for the Fatherland, If my old legs could carry 
me, I should gladly go and fight. . . . Do your 
whole duty, even if it cost you your life." 

Or take this example, from the letter of a seventeen- 
year-old son, in the high school, to his parents : 

"Let me go as a volunteer to the war. ... I have 
thought of all the great things being done by our 
troops, in order to build up a new, peaceful life. . . . 
I finally thought : 'Father must allow this ; he must be 
willing to offer me as a sacrifice for my country.' 
.... So, my dear parents, let me go as a volunteer. 
.... Mother has often taught me that an act 
freely done is finer in God's sight than a forced one. 
.... Trust to the God of old, who is watching 
over our whole people — He will deal well by them as 
by me. He speaks in me: Love of Fatherland is also 
love of God, because we are fighting a fight of truth 
against falsehood, a fight of justice . . . against 
tyranny. . . . There are things to which one can 
not answer 'No.' May God make your hearts feel so 
fully and so deeply the right of my request that you 
will give me your blessing : 'God be with you !' " 

Just one more illustration, even at the risk of being 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 157 

tedious. Theodor Leipart, head of the German Wood- 
workers' Union, lost his only son in the war, a mere 
boy who had volunteered. The members of the Union 
passed resolutions of condolence. But in thanking 
them for their thought and sympathy he writes : 

"My son left his school desk, full of earnest en- 
thusiasm, at the call of the Fatherland. In spite of his 
youth, he knew very well what it meant. A few days 
before a shell ended his young life, he wrote from the 
battlefield : *I bear everything, for I feel that I am do- 
ing it for your sake, dear father, to defend you.' 

"So has fought and bled each of the thousands of 
fathers, brothers and sons, for his loved ones at home, 
and together, for the Fatherland and the people. 
True, I had the ambition and the hope that my son 
might do more and bigger things for the Fatherland, 
the German people and all humanity, than merely to 
give his fair young life. 

"Yet I shall not on that account quarrel with the 
fate that has laid upon me this heavy grief; and the 
less since it costs all the other thousands the same — 
thousands who are one in their holy purpose to guard 
the future in all the relations of man. This means 
also that peaceful struggle which we carried on before 
the war and shall carry on when the war shall have 
been finished. 

"And so we mean to hope that the great agonizing 
labor which the Fatherland now claims of us, will light 
our striving for righteousness, welfare and peace for 
all the comrades among the people in the future, and 
so prove our blessing." 



158 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

This letter from the head of one of the strongest 
and most influential labor unions in Germany, was 
published in the Arbcitei'-Zeitimg (the Working Man's 
News) of January 24, 1915. 

Following the letter, this one line appeared as the 
only editorial comment : 

"Yes; and there still flows yet more precious blood 
upon earth. . . ." 

The above letters, copied from German newspapers, 
are characteristic. The German mails are burdened 
with them. The German press is filled with them. A 
volume would be needed merely to cite such examples. 
Talks with common soldiers on both eastern and west- 
ern battle lines, and in the hospitals, showed this Ger- 
man spirit in a vital human way — their words were 
stirring enough, but the light in the eye, the glow from 
the features, made doubt of their earnestness impos- 
sible. 

Church attendance and service afforded another 
manifestation of the popular spirit. All Germany is 
stirred by a profound religious movement, which 
showed itself before the war began. The religious 
element of the German character is displaying itself 
in an exalted, but quiet and steady devotion. Attend- 
ance on divine services, Protestant and Catholic, in city 
and village; the war sermons; the atmosphere of wor- 
ship; the devotion in the faces of congregations; the 
uniforms of soldiers and officers weaving strands of 
gray through the prevailing black of the composite 
costume; the massed singing of ancient hymns — wit- 
nessing and hearing all this was as informing and 
scarcely less dramatic than scenes on the firing-line. 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 159 

Listening to German war sermons gave the most 
scoffing American pause, so tender are they, yet so 
mihtant. 

Swing, now, to a more practical evidence of this 
spirit. Many, perhaps most, financial or industrial 
concerns continue to pay their employees absent in the 
field a substantial part of their salary For example : 
more than three thousand out of the eight thousand 
regular employees of the Deutsche Bank are at the 
front. To the unmarried, of these absent employees, 
the bank pays thirty per cent, of their regular salary. 

To those married, sixty per cent, of their regular 
salary is paid, and an additional five per cent, for every 
child born, up to a limit of eighty per cent. In the 
fortnightly paper which the bank publishes for its em- 
ployees, appear always two pages of honor: one 
giving, under the caption "The Hero Dead," the names 
of the bank's employees who have been killed, and an- 
other the names of the employees who have won the 
Iron Cross. 

Many working men's unions pay the wives of their 
members who now are soldiers, weekly allowances. 
For the first three months of the war, these labor or- 
ganizations expended $3,000,000 in this way. Since 
these first three months, the unions have increased 
these benefits. At first they thought they could not 
keep up the rate of these allowances; and, indeed, the 
funds of the unions did decrease. 

But they are now increasing. The metal-workers, 
for instance, had 18,000,000 marks on hand at the out- 
break of the war. After three months of war, this 
had sunk to 16,000,000 marks. But on the first of 



160 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

February, 1915, the metal-workers again had nearly 
18,000,000 marks in their treasury. And this is only 
one of the many labor unions of Germany which are 
doing the same. 

Also, it is worthy of remark that the German Labor 
Union and Socialist newspapers are sent to the Trades 
Union and Socialist soldiers at the front — hundreds 
of thousands of them.* 

Now, turn the light in another direction; it reveals 
the German volunteer as a visible and embattled mani- 
festation of the German spirit. The quality of these 
volunteers is as significant as their numbers. Hard- 
headed business men, the proprietors of great estab- 
lishments; distinguished public men; learned and fa- 
mous professors — all far past military age — were 
found at the front, as volunteers, enduring the hard- 
ships, braving the dangers of the simple soldier. Here 
are three of many such examples which came under 
personal observation : 

Calling at battery headquarters, after visiting the 
guns before Messines, where flying death was singing 
in the air, the artillery commander was found to be 
a leading German business man, head of one of the 
greatest chemical manufactories in the empire. Al- 
though past military age, yet there he was, serving as 
a volunteer, only his importance compelling his accept- 
ance by the government. 

On the way from Lille, France, to Grand Headquar- 
ters, a former Governor of German East Africa, with 
the high title of "Excellency," was found acting as 



* See chapter on "German Thought Back of the War," No. 2, 
Chapter VIII. 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 161 

sergeant of the guard. He also was a volunteer and 
over military age. His high position and past serv- 
ices secured him the privilege of enlisting as a com- 
mon soldier. He had just won his sergeant's stripes 
after months of service as a simple private. 

Houston Stewart Chamberlain, author of The Foun- 
dations of the Nineteenth Century, dedicated his Es- 
says on the War to an eminent German professor, 
who, although nearly fifteen years beyond the mili- 
tary age, demanded to be taken as a volunteer, and 
now is serving in the trenches, sleeping in underground 
quarters. 

Mention is made in another chapter of Doctor 
Frank, the Socialist leader, and strongest peace advo- 
cate of Europe, who volunteered at the outset, and 
soon afterward fell in battle; and of Doctor Siidekum, 
now leader of the Social Democratic party, who vol- 
unteered and is now at the front. 

These examples are not exceptional nor peculiar; 
there are thousands like them. 

Time and again, in America, one hears the question 
asked : "How long will German women stand this 
war? Why don't they end it?" You may read the 
answer in Tacitus, where he tells of German women 
fighting at their husbands' sides against the Romans. 
For, now as then, the answer is, first, that German 
women are prepared to stand this war until Germany 
triumphs or is destroyed : and second, that they do not 
want it ended until Germany is victorious. 

"My son, my husband, my all I gladly give in this 
sacred cause," said a prominent German woman. 

"1 glory that my brother fell for Germany. I wish 



162 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

I could go myself," said a young woman of the work- 
ing class, whose betrothed also was in the field. 

"I never have heard nor read of anything like it," 
said Baroness Speck von Sternberg, (an American 
woman) widow of the well known and much liked 
late German Ambassador to the United States. "The 
calm willingness to sacrifice all, which German women 
are displaying, can not be believed unless one sees and 
hears it." And Baroness von Sternberg gave many 
illustrations within her own knowledge. "And," said 
she, "you may quote what I have said, and give my 
name." 

A widow, whose two sons and son-in-law are 
serving in the ranks, declared that she was proud to 
have them go because "this is a just war." This woman 
was a Swiss, who had married a German. 

"I would not have the war end now, nor would any 
German girl or woman of my acquaintance," said Miss 
Strauss, a young business woman, met at luncheon at 
the house of Doctor Siidekum, the Socialist leader. 
"It must not end," said she, "until Germany wins. 
The German woman grieves, but gladly bears her 
burden. It is our duty." Time and time and time 
again, from both men and women, rich and poor, you 
hear that one word "duty !" 

A rich woman of Hamburg asked her bank for 
fifteen thousand marks, immediately. She could have 
had one hundred fifty thousand marks immediately; 
"but," said the banker, with that guardian-like care of 
his clients peculiar to bankers, "what do you want with 
fifteen thousand marks?" 

"My three sons are at the front. Two of them still 



A PEOPLE AT WAR 163 

are there," she answered; "but my third son was 
wounded so that he can not fight any more. But I 
want him to go back with his brothers and act as chauf- 
feur (a service often as hazardous as that of the 
trenches!) and I want this money to buy an automo- 
bile for him. I want no son of mine at home while 
this war lasts !" 

"Ask my little son how he feels," said Frau von 
Xylander, of Munich, wife of the Major- Adjutant at 
headquarters of the VI army. "I only wish I had 
twelve sons old enough to serve by their father's side. 
Gladly would I give them all for Germany. Every 
woman I know feels as I do. German women glory 
in their sacrifice for our country. To give is our duty, 
the noblest of duties. I know of no German woman 
who has shown weakness." And Frau von Xylander 
gave examples, as Baroness von Sternberg had done. 
"And," said she, "I unreservedly consent to your writ- 
ing what I have said, and using my name." 

These examples are typical of all those coming un- 
der personal observation. It is believed that they fairly 
represent the general sentiment of German women. If 
so, the American reader may judge for himself of the 
depth of German feeling and the height of German 
resolve. 

Disagree if you will with their opinion on the war; 
but do not deny the German people's sincerity, do not 
cavil at their heroism. Remember, always, that, as 
far as Germany is concerned, this is the people's war. 

"You can not. Sir," said Edmund Burke, "indict a 
people." 



VII 

GERMAN THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR 1* 

Savant, Shipping Genius, Business Man 

WHAT a people are thinking when at war, is 
as vital a fact as guns and ammunition. To 
state this is too serious a matter for the careful stu- 
dent to undertake exclusively on his own responsibil- 
ity, no matter how painstaking his investigation. For 
one can never be sure that he is interpreting another's 
view correctly. But if that other himself states his 
own thought, a degree of accuracy is secured. This 
course has been followed in presenting German 
thought and feeling as it was during the sixth and 
seventh months of the war. 

The same method, of course, was adopted in France 
and England as will appear in succeeding chapters. 

The present chapter is a careful report of conversa- 
tions with representatives of various classes of the 
German people, scholars, business men. Socialists, 
Trades Unionists. Out of many interviews, five typical 
ones are reproduced in this and the following chapter. 

They were written out and submitted to the person 
conversed with, who altered or verified the transcript 



* These conversations occurred during January, 1915. 

164 



GERMAN THOUGHT 165 

and authorized publication. They, therefore, may be 
considered reasonably reliable. 

They are not, of course, in any sense a presentation 
of Germany's case.* These conversations are the fa- 
miliar talk of representative German men, all of them 
extremely busy ; and they give casually and in offhand 
fashion typical German thought as it was after half a 
year of conflict. Incidentally, they deal with some sub- 
jects much discussed in America. 

The writer acts merely as a reporter — a medium 
through which the ideas prevailing and the facts exist- 
ing, as they really are, in three countries at war, are 
conveyed to the American public. While the student 
of peoples at war must maintain sympathetic serious- 

*The American public is of course familiar with the German 
view of the deep source of the war. The Germans believe that 
the pan-Slavist program, which is racial and religious, included 
the break-up of the Austrian Empire; that Servia was the Rus- 
sian agency through which this was being brought about; that 
with Austria destroyed, Germany would be entirely surrounded 
by enemies, practically cut off from the world, and her very 
existence imperiled ; that Russia knew that Germany must there- 
fore fight to save Austria (which Germany's alliance with Aus- 
tria also bound Germany to do) and so Russia mobilized on 
Germany's frontiers ; that the fact that Russia did not stop mo- 
bilizing when asked to do so meant war ; and, hence, that Ger- 
many was forced to strike or be overwhelmed. Thus, in the 
German mind, the war on Germany's part was and is purely 
defensive. 

As to France, the Germans say that Germany would not have 
attacked her except for the absolute certainty that France would 
attack Germany as she was bound to do by her alliance with 
Russia. 

The most curious feature of the war is the fact that not only 
do the Germans declare that they have no rancor toward France 
or the French ; on the contrary, as stated in Chapter VI, the 
expressions heard in Germany during the sixth month of the 
war were distinctly friendly to the French. 

But, during the sixth month of the war, when these conver- 
sations took place, German thought was that Great Britain was 



166 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ness in order to get the real spirit of the belligerent 
countries visited, yet he must at the same time have 
ever in his heart the getting and the stating of the facts 
regardless of whether they fit anybody's preconceived 
ideas. 

This much is said in order that the reader may 
clearly understand that what is set down in this book 
is an attempt to express faithfully not only material, 
but intellectual and spiritual conditions as they were 
in the warring countries at the time investigation was 
made. 

The Foremost of the World's Theologians 

The great Professor von Harnack is the unchal- 
lenged leader of German theological thought. By the 
learned of the earth, he is considered the most re- 
nowned historical theologian in the world — certainly 
the highest Protestant authority. Professor von Har- 
nack also stands in the forefront of philosophical 



the power practically and ultimately responsible. It was Great 
Britain, say the Germans, who arranged the entente that almost 
circles Germany with a band of steel which would close entirely 
if the pan-Slavist program was carried out ; England, declare 
the Germans, planned to invade Germany through Belgium by 
a military understanding with the latter country, violating Bel- 
gium's treaty with Germany, and destroying Belgian neutrality; 
Russia would not have dared to move, the Germans assert, if 
she had not been sure of the support of Great Britain, etc., etc. 

And all for what, ask the Germans? and the Germans affirm, 
in answer, that Great Britain's motive was to crush her most 
powerful commercial rival. Great Britain was not willing, the 
Germans say, to attempt this by herself but only in company 
with a combination so mighty that she was sure Germany would 
be beaten quickly and easily. 

The conversations narrated in this chapter, therefore, deal 
principally with Great Britain. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 167 

thinkers. His personal friend, the German Emperor, 
admires him as much as do the scholars of all 
countries. Only by a personal letter to Professor von 
Harnack from an American friend was a conversation 
with this German savant possible. 

This most eminent of the world's theologians was 
first met in the Royal Library, of which he is the di- 
rector. Afterward the conversation was resumed at his 
modest home in Grunewald, the scholar suburb of 
Berlin. 

*T wish," said I, in explaining my mission to Pro- 
fessor von Harnack, "to get at the thought which 
moves modern Germany. And so I have come to 
you." 

"I am a very humble person and should not presume 
to say that I could express German thought," answered 
Professor von Harnack, with unaffected modesty. "But 
I shall be glad to do what I can." 

"You know," said I, "that American public opinion 
is against Germany in this war." 

"I have heard that such is the fact, and it pains and 
grieves me. Why should it be so?" Professor von 
Harnack inquired. 

"Many reasons are given, some practical, some 
philosophical," I explained. "Among the latter, we 
Americans have been told that modern Germany is 
governed by the philosophy of Professor Treitschke, 
who is represented to us as having preached the doc- 
trine of force, the idea that might makes right and that 
war is necessary and a good thing in itself." 

"That is incorrect," mildly answered this grave- 
faced, gentle, kindly master of theological thought 



168 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

and learning. "Treitschke merely interpreted history 
as it actually was, not as it ought to be. Also, such 
of his language as might be misinterpreted at present 
was used with reference to the epochal period of 
1868-71. These passages from his lectures have had 
no influence on the thought of German people now 
living." 

"But," I insisted, "his warlike utterances are those 
which Americans have been told represent the Ger- 
man ideal." 

"But Lord Acton, professor of modern history in 
Cambridge, went farther than Treitschke ever dreamed 
of going in this line," observed the great German 
scholar. "In his introductory lecture, as Professor -of 
History at Cambridge, twelve or fifteen years ago, 
Lord Acton said : 'The objects of history are only 
those things for which people die or kill.' Lord Acton 
was a super-Treitschke. 

"But," continued Professor von Harnack, "do 
Americans think that in these lectures Lord Acton ex- 
pressed the ideal of the British people? If not, why do 
they think that Treitschke in the few sentences he 
spoke concerning nearly half a century ago expressed 
the thought of present-day Germany? Does our history 
since Treitschke's time show it ? We have devoted our- 
selves to industry during that period without a single 
war, while England has had many wars; and every 
one of our enemies more than one war." 

"But," I remarked, "General Bernhardi's book has 
been widely circulated in America since the war be- 
gan. It is said that it is the practical application of 
Treitschke's philosophy of war." 



GERMAN THOUGHT 169 

"I never read it," Professor von Harnack replied, 
"I do not know any one who has read it. I never 
heard of it until long after the war began. It could 
not have had much of a sale. It had no influence on 
German thought."* 

"But," I persisted, "it is said that German 'mili- 
tarism' is the result of Treitschke's philosophy and 
Bernhardi's book is its expression." 

"'Militarism'! What do you mean by that?" in- 
quired Professor von Harnack. 

"Germany's military party, Germany's military 
caste," I answered. 

"Military party, military caste in Germany!" ex- 
claimed Germany's great savant, in tones of mild sur- 
prise. "There are no such things in Germany ! If by 
'militarism' you mean our army, the answer is that it 
is the German people. If by 'military caste' you mean 



*The fact that Bernhardi's war book had little circulation in 
Germany, indeed, was practically unknown before the war, was 
one of the startHng surprises of which investigation revealed so 
many. Firmly convinced that this militarist writer is the inter- 
preter of German ideals and purposes, the American student of 
German conditions was shocked to find that Bernhardi's book had 
been read by very few Germans. 

Dr. F. Schmidt, well known to many American scholars, is 
my authority for the statement that only 6,000 were pubHshed in 
Germany, not all of which were sold. Houston Stewart Cham- 
berlain, author of The Foundations of the igth Century, said 
that he never heard of Bernhardi's volume until after the war 
broke out when he learned of it from British newspapers, for the 
first time. Professor D. Adolph Deissman, the eminent scholar, 
who is, perhaps, by experience and personal contact, as familiar 
with the student body of all Germany as any living man, declared 
in the Protestant Weekly Letter that before the war, Bernhardi's 
book was unheard of in German academic circles. 

Of a large number of Germans, scholars, bankers and work- 
ing men, personally interviewed, not one had read Bernhardi's 
book, even yet. 



170 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

our officers, the answer is that they are forbidden by 
law to take any part in politics. They have not as 
much influence with our government as the German 
working man or merchant."* 

"Of course that is true if you say it. Still, it is hard 
for us Americans to understand how Germany was 
able to put so many men in the field so quickly, and 
be ready to place twice that many more in the field to 
supply any possible loss," I argued. 

"The answer is as simple as it is sublime," remarked 
this grand old man — for any one meeting Professor 
von Harnack would describe him as "this grand old 
man." "It is a people, an whole people, an united 
people, in arms. Nothing else could explain the won- 
derful phenomenon we are witnessing in Germany ex- 
cept the fact of an whole people fighting for their 
lives." 

"But," I suggested, "we Americans do not under- 
stand why this war involves the welfare of the Ger- 
man people themselves. Even those unfriendly to 
Germany say that they love and admire the German 
people, and the Germany of Goethe and Schiller, but 
that this Germany has given way to a commercialized, 
military Germany." 

"Commercialized !" exclaimed the renowned German 
teacher. "I have been lecturing for thirty years, and 



* The Germans indignantly deny the influence of a "military 
party" in Germany, or even the existence of such a political or 
governmental force, as it is understood in America. Unless 
scores of Germans, all over the empire, of highest character and 
from all political parties and every walk of life, were wilfully 
and by prearrangement deceiving the investigator, it would ap- 
pear that we have not been fully informed on this point. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 171 

I tell you that in the last ten years there has been more 
interest among German students and indeed among 
all classes, in metaphysical and spiritual subjects than 
there was thirty years ago — yes, a great deal more, a 
very great deal more. Indeed, this is the greatest fact 
in modern Germany's intellectual and spiritual life." 

"But what about your industrial development? 
Your world commerce?" I asked. 

"That was necessary to our physical existence," an- 
swered Professor von Harnack. "And what of it? 
Does the fact that men work mean that they do not 
think? Indeed, it is because we not only worked but 
also thought that we have made this industrial prog- 
ress. Our multiplying millions had to be fed. They 
could be fed only by giving them the means of earning 
their own livelihood. Is that wrong? Is that 'com- 
mercialism' ?" 

"But your central, Imperial government — it is said 
that that represents militarism and not industry," I ex- 
plained. 

"Who says that?" exclaimed Professor von Har- 
nack. "The Imperial government has kept the peace 
of Europe for almost fifty years. It is during the 
period of the Imperial government that the German 
people have made their wonderful economic advance. 
Any business man or working man will tell you that 
Germany's industrial and commercial development 
could not have occurred without this central. Imperial 
government. It could not have happened, if the Ger- 
man states were separate, each for itself, as they once 
were, instead of all for each and each for all, as they 
now are." 



172 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Is that why," I asked, "that Your Excellency 
thinks that some of Germany's enemies complain of 
and wish to destroy Germany's central, Imperial gov- 
ernment, and put Germany in the condition in which it 
was in the time of Goethe and Schiller?" 

"Of course, that is the reason," Professor von Har- 
nack answered. "If they could destroy the Imperial 
government, they would destroy Germany's industrial 
and commercial system; they would take away the 
livelihood of millions of the German people. Ask any 
manufacturer or working man about that." 

"So, then," I followed up, "is that the reason for 
the general objection to the Imperial Germany of to- 
day ? Is that the reason why we are told that the Im- 
perial government must be destroyed?" 

"Yes; but it can not be destroyed," Professor von 
Harnack responded with much positiveness. "Sup- 
pose the impossible thought — that our enemies should 
win, and, as terms of peace, overthrow the central, Im- 
perial government. I tell you that in less than one 
year the German people, by themselves and of them- 
selves, would come together again in this same govern- 
ment and with our Emperor once more at its head." 

"Is it, then, with you Germans, as it is with us in 
the United States where we are fond of saying: *No 
north, no south, no east, no west; but only one 
nation ?' " I asked. 

"Exactly that," he answered. "That is what we 
say too. No Prussia, no Bavaria, no Saxony, or 
rather all together as just the German people." 

"Your Excellency said that German defeat is un- 
thinkable. Forgive me if I ask whether this is not 



GERMAN THOUGHT 173 

putting it a little strong? It is at least thinkable, is 
it not?" I inquired. 

"It is not thinkable, rationally," he answered. "Con- 
sider the nature of the combination opposing us, not 
only in their differences in government and ideals, but 
also ethnologically. Against this, put the great fact, 
seldom if ever seen before in the history of the world, 
of a nation of more than sixty-five millions of people, 
of one tongue, one origin, one ideal, one purpose, act- 
ing as an unit, ready and glad to die or win." 

"Is it so ultimate and final as that?" I broke in. 

"It is, indeed," answered Professor von Harnack. 
"Stay in Germany as long as you like ; search as widely 
as you will, and you will not find one man or woman 
who is not eager to give all and do all, no matter what, 
if it will win the victory for Germany." 

When, afterwards, I learned what it meant for Pro- 
fessor von Harnack to say this, in view of the loss his 
family had sustained during the war, it gave this sen- 
tence of the eminent German thinker a power and a 
meaning which can not be expressed in words. 

"I once thought that the real basis of German char- 
acter and mind was poetical, thoughtful, dreaming, a 
little bit mystical," I suggested. "But many Americans 
now believe that these qualities have been overcome by 
Germany's intensive industrial development, and by 
her hard and fast military system." 

"They believe wrongly, then," asserted Professor 
von Harnack. "The Germans are what you have said : 
poetic, thoughtful, metaphysical. They do not want to 
fight unless they must. Also, commerce and systematic 
business are not natural to them ; and they force them- 



174 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

selves to it as a means of getting a livelihood; but the 
real basis of their character is always there. It has 
been manifesting itself very much of recent years. For 
example, many of our most prominent business men 
are writers on metaphysical subjects. The whole nation 
cares more for culture than commerce." 

"The German word 'Kultur' is not at all understood 
in America," I observed. "Even informed men think 
it means a rigid proficiency that leaves out of consider- 
ation the higher things. But the other day, one of Ger- 
many's leading business men said to me that, whereas 
civilization has to do with material things of life, 'Kul- 
tur' has to do with the soul and the spirit. I got the 
idea from him that, in German thought, 'Kultur' means 
the development of the spiritual life, the striving for a 
higher existence." 

"You have said it from my heart!" answered Pro- 
fessor von Harnack. 

"But," I remarked, "Americans will say that this is 
too general, and that Germans have no monopoly of 
aspiration toward better things. So may I ask Your 
Excellency to explain, specifically, what Germans mean 
by their word 'Kultur'?" 

"I shall try to do so," answered Professor von Har- 
nack. 

"By *Kultur' we mean three attitudes or aspirations 
of the mind and heart. 

"First, thoroughness ; the wish and will to get to the 
bottom of anything. 

"Second, altruism — the opposite of selfishness. Mat- 
thew XXV explains what I mean. We wish to form an 
union, wide as human life and deep as human misery. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 175 

"Third, the wish to see all temporal things in an 
eternal light ; the desire to connect all our thought and 
action with the Everlasting; the purpose and prayer 
to be co-workers with God in making ourselves and 
our fellow men better and happier. 

"All of this is what we mean by German 'Kultur.' 
We have not reached it, but we strive for it in all hu- 
mility." 

"Is it the altruism in your 'Kultur' that is the source 
of Germany's humanitarian laws, such as old age pen- 
sions, industrial insurance, and others?" 

"Yes, they are the product of the altruistic philoso- 
phy which is a vital part of German 'Kultur.' " 

"And yet, we in America have been told that the 
philosophy of Nietzsche is the ruling spirit of Ger- 
many." 

"How can that be?" answered Professor von Har- 
nack, "with all the laws we have passed and the things 
we have done to help the weak and succor the unfor- 
tunate; with all our practical achievements to make 
human sympathy real ; with our working out in actual 
life of the ideal of brotherhood? I do not say it in criti- 
cism ; but is not the American individualistic idea more 
the philosophy of Nietzsche than our German commu- 
nity ideal and practice?" 

"But," I remarked, "is not Nietzsche widely read in 
Germany ?" 

"No, not widely now. Many do still read Nietzsche, 
but only as a poet, not as a philosopher," Professor von 
Harnack patiently explained. 

"I have been much impressed. Your Excellency, with 
the religious wave which I am told began to rise in 



176 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Germany just before the outbreak of the war, and has 
grown stronger, as the war has gone on. What con- 
nection has this reHgious movement with this great 
conflict ? Was it because of an instinct that a war was 
coming?" I inquired. 

"Not at all," said Professor von Harnack. "There 
was a period of years during which interest in religion 
seemed to decline among a large part of our people. 
But as I have said, one of the basic elements of the 
German character is the spiritual and the religious. So, 
in the last few years, a new interest in religion has been 
showing itself; it has been growing and spreading. It 
began, perhaps, with the upper classes, and then 
showed itself among all classes. The present great .re- 
ligious thought and feeling among the German people 
is only the flowering out of this steady development." 

"Who is responsible for this hideous conflict. Pro- 
fessor Harnack?" I asked. 

"England," he answered solemnly and with evident 
regret. "But I say it without hate in my heart. Eng- 
land is, perhaps, not directly answerable that the war 
should have broken out at this time ; but when she saw 
that Russia wanted war now, she encouraged Russia to 
mobilize, as she was resolved to fight Germany down, 
sooner or later. By England, I mean the present Eng- 
lish government ; by Russia, the Russian military party 
and the pan-Slavist idea." 

The Master Builder of Germany's Sea-Going 
Commerce 

Consider now the views of one of Germany's great- 
est business men. General Director Albert Ballin is the 



GERMAN THOUGHT 177 

genius who built up the Hamburg- American Line from 
a small concern, hopelessly bankrupt, to the largest 
steamship company in the world. In Germany he is 
considered one of the greatest, if not the very first, 
constructive business mind in Europe, There are Ger- 
mans who say that, as a commercial organizer, he is 
unequalled by any living man in any country. 

General Director Ballin is the direct antithesis of 
Professor von Harnack; he devotes his large ability to 
purely practical business and he is an Hebrew — yet his 
patriotism is as intense and self-sacrificing as is that 
of the purely Teutonic thinker and divine. 

General Director Ballin is now giving all his energy 
to the organization of Germany's food production and 
distribution. 

"I never worked so hard in my life, not even when 
I was a young man," said Director Ballin ; "and I never 
worked so gladly." 

*T am trying to get at the bottom of this war," I re- 
marked. "We Americans want to know the real cause 
of it, and who began it." 

"Well," answered General Director Ballin, "if you 
put aside the incidents and get down to the first cause, 
you will find that it was commercial rivalry, and at 
bottom England began it. She could have prevented it. 
Russia never would have gone on if she had not been 
sure about England; even at the last, England could 
have ended the whole thing without war. But she did 
not want to do it, and she did not do it. We hold her 
responsible; and she is responsible." 

"I can not understand," I observed, "why England 
should have wanted such a war as this." 



178 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"She was not farsighted," answered Director Ballin, 
"and she miscalculated. England was sure that with 
her aid, Russia and France would overwhelm Germany 
very quickly. England thought that the combination of 
allies which she had arranged would bring us to our 
knees very soon, and that then she could dictate the 
terms of peace. But she had no idea of the strength of 
the German people." 

"But what was her reason?" I pressed. 

"She wished to break down her greatest commercial 
rival. We work harder, longer and more scientifically 
than the English. A long monopoly of the world's 
markets made them too rich. Compared with the Ger- 
mans, they are idle — all of us Germans, rich and poor 
alike, work every day and at long hours every day. The 
result was that we were dividing the world's markets 
with England, and, indeed, taking her markets from 
her. That is the real cause of England's action." 

"But how could she help that by beating you in 
war?" I asked. 

"In many ways; breaking up our commercial con- 
nections over the world would be one way," said Herr 
Ballin. 

"But that would mean a long war," I observed. "A 
quick victory over Germany would not break up your 
foreign trade, seriously. You could recover it very 
quickly. Nothing but a long war, a war for years could 
root out your commercial connections in other coun- 
tries, so that you would have to begin all over again, 
and start where you started forty years ago. Do you 
think that it will be a long war?" 

"I hardly think Russia and France will care to go to 



GERMAN THOUGHT 179 

such lengths. Still, it may be a long war — a very long 
war," responded Herr Ballin. 

"Frankly, how long can Germany keep up the war ?" 
I ventured to inquire. 

"We can keep it up for years, and we shall if neces- 
sary," said Herr Ballin. "We know that it is a ques- 
tion of existence with us. I suppose you have heard 
that statement before; but it is true." 

"Have you the requisite resources?" I asked. 

"Why, yes," quickly replied Herr Ballin, with em- 
phasis. "Have you not seen that already? Financially 
we are in wonderful condition. Take the question of 
food. Have you seen any lack of it?" 

"Why, then, your new food law?" I inquired. 

"That is the best proof of all," answered Herr Bal- 
lin. "We have more than enough for this year without 
any law. But we are looking out for next year and the 
year after that and the year after that." 

"But America thinks you do not have enough cop- 
per. 

"We have large quantities of copper," declared Di- 
rector Ballin. "We have not even touched our extra 
copper. Just take one item. If worst came to worst, 
the wires on our electric street-car lines alone would 
give us 120,000 tons of copper, which is more than 
enough for one year. We could easily replace them 
with iron wires. But that would only be an emergency 
which is not yet in sight. Then we could take the cop- 
per roofs of houses. And with both of these used up, 
we still would have left from other sources many times 
the quantity of copper yielded by both these sources. 

"But without touching even our electric street-car 



180 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

wires, we have enough copper to last for a very long 
time. And if we had to use all the copper of every 
kind, for the purposes of war, which is now in use 
in Germany, in other forms, we could carry the war 
on almost indefinitely." 

"And oil? We in America think you are short of 
oil. Is not Galicia your chief natural supply of oil 
in such a war as this, and was it not for that reason 
that Russia made the drive on Galicia?" I inquired. 

"It may have been; I do not know. But the oil 
question does not trouble us," Herr Ballin asserted. 
"We are making a substitute for benzine ; wood alcohol 
is another excellent substitute ; and there are still oth- 
ers. Besides we have plenty of oil and are getting 
more." 

"Is it not rather wasteful to use your oil on taxi- 
cabs and automobiles? I notice the usual number of 
taxicabs in Berlin, Hamburg and every other city. Is 
not that a great waste of oil?" 

"Oh," said Herr Ballin, "those taxicabs are run by 
alcohol. That is a good example of why we are not 
troubled about oil." 

"But getting back to how England can hurt you 
commercially by war; while she might break up your 
commerce by a long-drawn-out conflict, she could not 
do that by a quick victory which you said she thought 
she would have," I remarked. 

"Oh, yes," answered Herr Ballin, "if she could 
make terms of peace she could do anything she liked. 
She could limit the size of our ships. She could put 
a war indemnity on us so heavy as to break us. Worst 
of all, she could require the dismemberment of our 



GERMAN THOUGHT 181 

Imperial government — that is, our central govern- 
ment." 

"I have heard that before," I observed. 'T 
have been told that Germany's industrial and eco- 
nomic development — her management of railway 
rates, trusts, tariffs and all the elements of Germany's 
economic progress, has been possible only by reason 
of your central government; and that it could not 
have been accomplished in the divided condition that 
existed before the central Imperial government was 
established, and would be ended if the central govern- 
ment were overthrown and the old condition restored." 

"That is exactly true," answered Herr Ballin ; "and 
that is exactly what England would have required had 
she won. At least I think so." 

"Is that what is meant, then, by the talk about lov- 
ing the German people, the Germany of Goethe and 
Schiller, but hating this Imperial government with its 
militarism?" 

"Why, of course it is!" 

"Most of the talk I have heard, whether at the 
front in France, or in a village in the heart of Ger- 
many, always goes back to what you said — the neces- 
sity of Germany's getting her goods to market, and 
England's wanting to prevent her from doing so; at 
least business men and working men, whom I find very 
well informed indeed, reason it out that way. The 
Hamburg- American line is the center of Germany's 
shipping activities — how far is it willing to go; how 
far are you willing to go?" I asked. 

"To the very end; to the last ship," exclaimed the 
great shipping magnate. "As for myself, I am willing 



182 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

and prepared to come out of this a poor man, if neces- 
sary. I should be happy to do so if that would help 
Germany to win, as she will." 

"Americans do not understand how you can win. 
After weeks in Germany it is hard for me to grasp 
this seemingly unanimous faith of the German people 
in victory. Do you really think, yourself, that Ger- 
many will win? You may speak to me in frankness 
and confidence. I give you my word that I will not 
repeat your answer if you do not wish me to," said I. 

"Yes, I believe we shall win," replied Herr Ballin. 
"I know we will win. I do not think it, I knozv it. 
And you may repeat it as much as you like. I have 
not the least doubt on that point." 

"In the United States there are those who fear that 
Germany intends to violate our Monroe Doctrine by 
occupying parts of South America." 

"That, of course, is sheer nonsense. We want to 
trade in South America as we are doing now; and 
every place else. But nothing more." 

"But it is said that your idea is to get possessions 
all over the world." 

"The facts are the best answer to that," said Herr 
Ballin. "Since 1870 France has built up a great co- 
lonial empire — Algiers, Tunis, for example. What 
have we got? A part of east Africa and southwest 
Africa, and the Kiouw Chow experiment. That is all." 

"But Belgium; will you keep Belgium?" 

"I don't know," said Herr Ballin; "but personally 
I hope so. But the main thing we do want is such a 
peace as will leave us alone to work and trade without 
interference." 



GERMAN THOUGHT 183 

"Speaking of Belgium, your violation of her neu- 
trality was one cause of America's unfavorable public 
opinion toward Germany. Do the business men of 
Germany approve the attack on Belgium?" I inquired. 

"Belgium had a treaty with Germany as well as 
with France and England ; yet she made a secret agree- 
ment with France and England in violation of her 
treaty with Germany," asserted the General Director. 
"She destroyed her own neutrality. We have proved 
this to the world now, and nobody has denied it. We 
have still more proof. One single circumstance ought 
to satisfy anybody — I mean the large stores of English 
war material which we found in Maubeuge. That is 
only one example of many that the agreement was be- 
ing carried through. But besides these examples we 
have the documentary proof; and as I say, it is not 
denied. Answering your question directly, German 
business men heartily approve our advance through 
Belgium under the circumstances. 

"This suggests to me the food question again," con- 
tinued Herr Ballin. "We are fighting this war in the 
enemy's country — in France on one side and in Rus- 
sian Poland on the other side. So the country we oc- 
cupy, especially in the west, is furnishing a good deal 
of the food consumed by our armies. This is not an 
important item, for we have enough food within Ger- 
many itself. And yet, it is important, too, when j^ou 
think that we already have nearly 700,000 prisoners in 
Germany, whom we must feed, and are feeding very 
well indeed."* 

* This conversation occurred January 28, 1915. 



184 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Does the fact that you are fighting the war in 
France and Russian Poland have anything to do with 
your beHef, your confidence that Germany will win?" 
I asked. 

"Yes, of course. They never can drive us back to 
the German frontier and carry the war into Germany. 
That ought to be plain to anybody. But that is not the 
chief reason for our certainty of winning. The spirit 
of the people; their absolute unity; the feehng of all of 
us that it is life or death with us; the willingness of 
every German, high and low, rich and poor, man and 
woman, to go to the end, even to poverty and death 
itself; the superiority of our men in the field, both offi- 
cers and men — things like these are what make us 
know that we shall win in the end." 

"But, will the women of Germany consent to allow 
the war to go to such lengths?" I asked. 

"The women of Germany are as strong for the war 
as any man in the country," declared Herr Ballin. "I 
can give you dozens of examples, within my own per- 
sonal knowledge. Here is one, which came to my at- 
tention only yesterday. A friend of mine, a lady of 
wealth, who already has four sons at the front; her 
fifth son is in America and has not been able to get 
back. The mother is grieving because this fifth son 
has not been able to get to the front also, to fight for 
Germany. You can write a book of examples of this 
spirit among the German women. They are our strong- 
est support. I suggest that you talk to German women 
yourself. You will find there the best proof of the 
spirit that animates Germany in this war." 



GERMAN THOUGHT 185 

A Typical Young German Business Man 

Let us go now to the younger German business men. 
Walter Rathenau, President of the General Electric 
Company of Germany, one of the largest corporations 
and employers of labor in Europe, is typical of these; 
for not only is he prominent in the management of one 
of Europe's greatest business concerns, but also is the 
author of books and brochures on metaphysical and 
philosophical subjects; and this combination of specu- 
lative learning and practical efficiency is a character- 
istic of the new generation that is occupying the field 
of German business. Doctor Rathenau is now giving 
all of his time to the war department, and is the head 
of a group of one hundred fifty scientists working un- 
der his direction. 

"In considering the causes of the war," said Doctor 
Rathenau, "we must distinguish between the pow- 
der and the match. The match that fired the powder 
was Russia. But the powder was the inevitable con- 
flict between England and Germany. On the surface 
this is a mere struggle for commercial monopoly on 
England's part. But deeper down, it is a struggle 
between two conceptions of life and duty. 

"Let me illustrate. Take the chemical industry. 
Let us say that there are five thousand scientists in 
Germany, each glad to work for one hundred fifty 
dollars a month, but not merely for the money. That 
is only an incidental reward — just a livelihood. Their 
real reward is their passion to discover Nature's truths. 
Also, there comes in the element of their conception of 



186 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

duty. They not only are satisfying themselves by do- 
ing, for its own sake, what they love best to do, but 
also they feel that they are helping to build up Ger- 
many, and in a broader way, to increase the sum of 
human knowledge. There you have the real motive that 
inspires these five thousand scientists. 

"On the other hand, there are in England, let us say, 
thirty scientists of the same abihty and skill. But they 
must be professors in Oxford, Cambridge, or other 
schools of learning. They would scorn such employ- 
ment, such work as our five thousand German scien- 
tists do for one hundred and fifty dollars a month. 
The German's principal pay — the pleasure he gets 
from investigating Nature's mysteries, and his ideal 
of duty — does not appeal to his brother English scien- 
tist at all. 

"It is not generally known or believed, but it is true, 
that most of the discoveries made by our scientists, 
which we apply in advancing our industry, are by- 
products of these scientists' general work. So there 
is one illustration of our industrial superiority, grow- 
ing out of an ideal of life and duty. To this ideal, 
the Englishman is a stranger. 

"Again, among us Germans the love of knowledge is 
a part of the German character. We feel that we can 
not have too much of it. To make it plainer, let me 
say that in Germany it is fashionable to be informed. 
In England, on the contrary, it is felt that it is ungen- 
tlemanly to acquire more knowledge after a certain 
point of education. The Englishmen say that they do 
not like 'walking dictionaries.' 

"Again, bring in the idea of duty to one's country. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 187 

"Now, apply this to employees of an industry; say, 
an industrial company of thirty thousand employees, or 
of an hundred thousand employees; or a great bank 
with ten thousand employees, willing to work ten hours 
a day and always searching for knowledge. They 
work not for food only, but also as a duty for the 
building up of Germany. 

"Contrast with this concept of life and labor the 
conception of the same class of men in England; as 
little work as possible ; no more knowledge than abso- 
lutely necessary; vacations, luxuries, and the mental 
and physical habits growing out of these. 

"In the final analysis, these illustrations show you 
why Germany has been able to sell her products in for- 
eign markets which England had monopolized so long 
that she thought they belonged to her as a matter 
of right. 

"So, you see, the conflict was inevitable, and the 
basis of it is a difference in fundamental ideals of life 
and duty. That is the deep reason why the war must 
go on until it is proved which of these ideals is the true 
one. It is why we Germans are willing to die, and 
suffer worse than death, in order to win. For not only 
is our ability to live physically at stake, but our whole 
concept of life is involved." 

"Then," said I, "do you think it will be a long war?" 

"I do," answered Doctor Rathenau. "Speaking for 
myself, I personally think the war will last for years. 
The very concept of German civilization is involved. 
Our culture, which combines our ideals, and which is 
the dearest of all things to us, is at stake." 

"I fear that the German word 'Kultur' is not under- 



188 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

stood in America," I remarked. "Would you be kind 
enough to explain it?" 

"I already have stated part of it," exclaimed Doctor 
Rathenau, "the love of, the search for the truth, in all 
the fields of knowledge; the wish to make that search 
final and complete ; the reward for work in the doing 
of the work well ; the idea of duty to the community or 
nation, as an element in all labor, mental or physical. 
These are a part of German 'Kultur.' 

"The ideal of mutual helpfulness is an even more 
important part — the concept that our neighbors and co- 
workers and fellow countrymen shall be benefited by 
the work of each individual. One result of this is Ger- 
many's humanitarian laws to aid the weak, the aged, 
the unfortunate. These laws are a direct outgrowth of 
one ideal embraced in the German word 'Kultur.' 

"And, finally, the concept that all we do and think 
is related to all time, and that our work lives on, and 
will be for the good of future generations; these are 
some of the main ideals embraced in our German 
'Kultur.' 

"It all grows out of German character, the funda- 
mental nature of which is philosophical, poetic, altru- 
istic. 

"Add to all this, industry, and you have the moving 
causes for the economic progress which has marked 
Germany the last few decades. 

"At another period, this basic German character 
showed itself in music, metaphysics, poetry. The eco- 
nomic pressure of a population which has grown to be 
enormous turned this, in our times, to industrial evo- 
lution. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 189 

"There are nearly 70,000,000 of us Germans living 
in a country smaller than some of your states. Our 
country has a comparatively poor soil — indeed it is not 
rich in any mere physical resource. It has the poorest 
location imaginable. And it is surrounded by enemies. 
It has been Europe's battlefield for centuries. 

"Yet in spite of all this we have built up an industry 
unequaled in the world; and by applying our ideals 
of 'Kultur' our dense population have made themselves 
happy and contented as well as prosperous. But just 
because in doing this we have dared to compete suc- 
cessfully with England in the world's markets England 
says that we must be crushed, and destroyed, or else 
totally disabled ! 

"It is not to be borne !" exclaimed Doctor Rathenau. 
"No sacrifice is too high or dear for us to make, to 
preserve our civilization and our 'Kultur.' " 

"But can you win?" I asked. 

"We can and will. I have not a doubt of our suc- 
cess," quickly responded Doctor Rathenau. 

I asked about militarism. 

"Of course," replied Doctor Rathenau, "what Eng- 
land is trying to make the world believe by the word 
'militarism' simply does not exist in Germany. Our 
people are our army and our army is our people. Our 
history has taught us that we dare not be without an 
army. All other countries, I believe, have armies. If, 
then, we must have an army, we wish it to be the best 
possible. We have tried to make it such, exactly as we 
have tried to make our industry and science the best 
possible. It is because we have succeeded in this as in 
other things that our enemies cry 'militarism !' Yet 



190 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

nobody attacks our enemies because each of them has a 
mihtary or naval estabHshment !" 

"But Bernharcli's book is represented to us as the 
German ideal?" 

"Whoever told you that wronged you and us alike. 
Bernhardi's military book was practically unknown in 
Germany before the war. Most Germans heard of it 
then, for the first time, through the English advertise- 
ments of it as our great classic. You will not find 
one German in ten thousand who has read it or even 
heard of it before the war. Do you Americans think 
such misrepresentations of a friendly nation right or 
moral ?" 

"It is thought," I suggested, "that the German mili- 
tary and naval establishment is aggressive and threat- 
ens the peace of the world." 

"In view of the fact," said Doctor Rathenau, "that 
Germany has kept peace for nearly fifty years and un- 
der great provocation, this charge seems hardly fair. 
We have had no war for almost half a century; every 
one of our enemies has had several wars in that period 
— and some of them have been serious. What the 
English call our 'militarism' is not militarism at all ; it 
is merely a people prepared to defend itself. And as 
such, it is not only a good thing; it is a necessary 
thing." 

"Do you think that a wider range of popular gov- 
ernment is approaching for Germany?" I asked. 

"Probably; but we shall not go so far as you have 
gone in America ; nor as England has gone. You have 
gone too far. That will be one of the results of the 
war. We shall pick up our foreign commerce again 



GERMAN THOUGHT 191 

soon enough. It is founded on a real superiority 
which can not be destroyed. We shall emerge from 
the war a poorer but a stronger people, a nobler and a 
more unified Germany. 

"Remember that you in America will grow rich and 
richer. But I am not sure it will be good for you. 
Here, we shall not grow rich so rapidly. But we shall 
find happiness the more surely." 



VIII 

GERMAN THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR II* 

The Leader of German Socialism and a German 
Trades Union Official 

THERE are more than 2,000,000 working men 
now at the front; of these more than 1,500,000 
are Socialists," said Doctor Albert Siidekum, leader of 
the Social Democratic party in Germany. 

"Yes," spoke up Albert Baumeister, Assistant Sec- 
retary of the International Federation of Trades 
Unions, "and among them large numbers are volun- 
teers." 

"Volunteers !" I exclaimed. 

"Yes; volunteers," repeated Mr. Baumeister. 
"When this war came upon us, more than 2,500,000 
men, not called to the colors, volunteered. So heavy 
was the pressure of these men to be taken, that scores 
of thousands liable for service and notified to report 
were left behind. For example, I myself am one of 
these. I belong to the naval branch and, in obedience 
to instructions, reported at Kiel. But there I found 
more than 40,000 volunteers clamoring to be accepted. 
So here I am still waiting. And there are thousands 
like me." 



* These conversations took place during January, 1915. 

192 



GERMAN THOUGHT 193 

We were dining and spending the evening in talk in 
the big eating room of the Gezvcrkschaftshaus — that is, 
the Working Men's House — the labor center of Berlin. 
A good orchestra played classical music. The meal for 
three men cost a little less than five marks, or about a 
dollar ten cents. One man ordered rabbit pot-pie, the 
other two had large, thick pork steaks, and all three 
had potatoes, beans, peas, cheese and all the bread and 
butter they could eat — a fair example of food and 
prices in any popular restaurant in Germany. 

Both Doctor Siidekum and Mr. Baumeister speak 
English perfectly. I had met Doctor Siidekum 
through an American Socialist of native American 
stock, who happened to be in Berlin for a short time, 
and whom I chanced to meet on the street. Through 
Doctor Siidekum, I met Mr. Baumeister, and thus 
came the rare opportunity to get the radical sentiment 
of Germany, and the view-point of the German work- 
ing man, at first hand. 

Though forty-five 3^ears old and past military age, 
Doctor Siidekum, since the time of the conversations 
here recorded (January, 1915) has proved his sin- 
cerity by enlisting as a volunteer. Because of his great 
prominence and influence, he finally was accepted. 

Doctor Siidekum is a natural orator and one of the 
most attractive and popular speakers in Germany. He 
has delivered lectures in America, and is well known 
to many American thinkers. He is a linguist, speaking 
French, Italian and other languages, as well as English 
and German. Doctor Siidekum is one of the editors of 
Germany's celebrated Municipal Year Book, by far the 
most complete and authoritative publication of its kind 



194 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

in the world. Also, he is a member of the Reichstag, 
representing Niirnberg. 

"Every man, woman and child in Germany is peace 
loving ; but they are, as things now stand, for this war 
to the uttermost," said this leader of the German Social 
Democratic party. "All of them will sacrifice every- 
thing, even life, to win. But if it can be said to be the 
war of any one class more than another, this is the Ger- 
man working man's war." 

"How can that be?" I inquired in surprise, for I had 
come from America with the impression very firmly 
fixed that German working men and especially German 
Socialists, were opposing the war. 

"We are fighting for our lives," answered Doctor 
Siidekum. "It is our very existence which is at stake 
in this war. By intensive industry we have furnished 
employment to our millions of workers. The sale of 
their products was taking England's markets from her. 
This was because we worked harder, saved better, or- 
ganized more carefully, and, by our spirit of solidarity 
and methods of mutual, cooperative helpfulness, cre- 
ated a better feeling, more contentment and a finer 
sentiment of service for the general welfare. 

"In short, we produced a better product by making 
better and happier workers. The English were not 
willing to take the pains to do all this; they were not 
willing to meet our honest competition. That is why 
they are fighting to destroy modern Germany. And 
that is why this war means life or death to the German 
people and especially to German working men." 

"But how," I asked, "could England destroy modern 
Germany? In case of your defeat, how could Ger- 



GERMAN THOUGHT 195 

many's enemies impose any terms which would injure 
German working men?" 

"In several ways. If one were to judge from the 
English talk against our centralized, national govern- 
ment, its dismemberment would be one way of destroy- 
ing our industry by which our workers live. This is 
probably what is at the bottom of their hypocritical 
talk about loving the German people and only hating 
German nationalism, which they want to destroy in the 
interest of 'humanity.' You have heard that, have you 
not? — 'the Germany of Schiller and Goethe!' The 
Germany of Goethe and Schiller could not have fed 
nearly 70,000,000 of people; it did not even feed the 
people it had in those days. 

"We have all that the world admires in Goethe and 
Schiller, and a great deal more. We have noble ideals 
of human welfare, and we are working them out. 
Look at our laws for the care and comfort of the 
workers and the poor. We have led the world in this 
class of legislation, for the amelioration and better- 
ment of human conditions. What English reformers 
are feebly clamoring for now, we Germans have had 
for years. And we have only begun. Much more of 
such reforms are coming. Several have been adopted 
since the war began. The Goethe and Schiller Ger- 
many did none of these things. 

"Our wonderful economic progress has been made 
possible only by and through the creation of a central 
government; a national government, if you like that 
word better. We German Social Democrats want even 
more nationalism, especially more solidarity. Our tariff 
management, our trust management, our railway man- 



196 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

agement, and other elements of our commercial and in- 
dustrial evolution, could not have been worked out ex- 
cept through a centralized government. They would 
have been impossible with the divided Germany that 
existed before 1870. 

"Forty years ago we exported men; to-day we ex- 
port goods, not men. Indeed, our economic and social 
condition is such that people have been immigrating to 
Germany, crowded as it is, instead of emigrating from 
Germany. 

"If England could destroy united Germany, with its 
national government, under which our industrial and 
social progress has been achieved, she thereby could 
destroy most of our industry, by which our workers 
live. If she could dismember modem Germany and 
make it once more the Germany of Goethe and Schil- 
ler, we would once more export men instead of goods, 
and England once more would have the monopoly of 
exporting goods." 

"But does not your modern centralized government 
stand for militarism?" I asked. "We have the idea in 
America that militarism is the ideal of modem Ger- 
many." 

"That misstatement also comes from England," an- 
swered Doctor Siidekum. "As they represent it, it is, 
of course, absurd and false. The militarism the Eng- 
lish talk about does not exist in the form or with the 
consequences they represent. A great armed force is 
necessary for us. You will see why, if you think of 
our location and histor\'. ^^'e are surrounded by ene- 
mies : we have been warred upon and our countn.' over- 
run for hundreds of years. Wq have to face the facts. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 197 

W^e can not have economic freedom without the pro- 
tection of an armed force. This armed force is almost 
wholly from and of the people. The people are the 
army. 

"The Social Democratic party of Germany has al- 
ways fought the faults and defects of our military 
system and will do so in the future. But it has always 
stood also for the general armament of the people 
against foreign aggressors. In order to secure our 
own country (and at the same time general peace) we 
German Social Democrats do not object to the army 
itself, only to its so-called 'dark sides' ; so we fought, for 
instance, the internationalism of war capital, the inter- 
national trust of gun and powder makers. 

"But so far as general armament of the people is 
concerned," continued Doctor Siidekum, "we would 
even broaden the military service, begin it earlier and 
leave out nobody who is fit for it. As our system now 
is, only a part of our available men can be taken into 
the military service and have military training, because 
we have not money enough. So we Social Democrats 
would remedy that by shortening the time of service 
(of the then better prepared and trained men) from 
two years to, say, one year; a step on the road to 
a real militia, like the Swiss system. Then everybody 
could be in the army in case of emergency." 

"But, has not Germany's extensive military service 
endangered the peace of Europe?" I asked. 

"Nearly half a century of peace proves the con- 
trary," answered Doctor Siidekum. "For almost fifty 
years Germany has had no war, except the small 
colonial affair in southwest Africa, while every one of 



198 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

the countries now combnied to crush us — England, 
Russia, Japan, France — has had one or more wars, 
some of them great and serious, and nearly all of them 
indefensible from the view-point of justice, humanity 
and love of peace. Yet we Germans, who have been 
at peace and kept the peace, are called by the English, 
disturbers of the peace. Is that fair or truthful? No !" 

"But as a matter of fact, has not Germany's great 
military establishment forced other nations to follow 
suit, and thus made Europe an armed camp?" I in- 
sisted. 

"No, indeed !" said Doctor Siidekum. "Modern 
militarism was not 'made in Germany.' Napoleon III 
was its father, and it was born in France. Since 1849, 
France has alzvays been aggressive. In 1849 she over- 
ran the Roman Republic; in 1854-56, she made war 
against Russia; in 1859 against Austria; then came a 
Chinese war and then the Mexican adventure; finally, 
the Franco-German War of 1870-71. France, through 
Napoleon III, inaugurated the modern politics of big 
land armies; he and France cultivated the worship of 
'la gloire.' Prussia, by simple fear of an overwhelm- 
ingly strong France, began to build up her modern 
army in 1861 — and then it was anything but popular. 

"So there is your origin of modern militarism. It is 
not a native offspring of German soil. The German 
military system is purely defensive. The German peo- 
ple are peace-loving above all things. Their spirit Is 
not that of conquest. We want to be let alone, that is 
all, to develop our own industrial, social, economic and 
political progress. It is for this we fight now, and we 
shall fight to the death." 



GERMAN THOUGHT 199 

"But this is not what we understand in America 
from General Bernhardi's book, which is widely read 
and is understood to represent the ideal and spirit of 
modern Germany," I suggested. 

"If Bernhardi's book is widely read in America, it 
had better luck in your country than it did in Germany. 
Very few read it here. It made no impression at all. 
I doubt if many of the 70,000,000 of the German peo- 
ple know that Bernhardi ever wrote a book." 

"You spoke of the defects of your military system," 
I suggested. 

"Yes, and it is these which w^e have fought and will 
fight and which we expect to remedy," said the bril- 
liant German Socialist. "What there is of 'militarism' 
(exclusively in respect of officers — there are certainly 
'German West Pointers' ; in respect of the influence of 
the military service on private life; in respect of a cer- 
tain harsh manner in our state officials, who, to some 
extent, come from the army; in respect of things like 
these) is a mere home question for ourselves and does 
not in the least regard the English. What needs im- 
provement we, ourselves, shall improve. 

"But," went on Doctor Siidekum, "suppose we did 
have a 'militarism' such as the English describe — why 
should England make war on it any more than Ger- 
many should make war on English hypocrisy? Why 
doesn't England begin a crusade against French chau- 
vinism, or against Russian pogrouiismf 

"If they say that this trumped-up German 'mili- 
tarism' is dangerous to the world, we answer that it has 
not done the outer world any harm since 1870, the 
year when they say it began, whereas English hypoc- 



200 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

risy has done the world more harm than ever will be 
computed. In fact this English scarecrow of German 
'militarism' does not exist — unless a peaceful people 
ready to defend themselves can be called militarism. 

''The very circumstance that they say that they 
make war on Gemian 'militarism' shows that the whole 
spirit animating our enemies is aggressive," continued 
the German Socialist leader. "One of their objections 
to so-called militarism is that it alienates men from 
civil life; this again reveals their hypocrisy; for in 
Germany, military service is two years, France three 
years, Japan three years, Russia three-four years." 

"So German Social Democrats do not wish to abol- 
ish military service?" I asked. 

"No; as I have said, we would broaden it so that 
every physically fit man might have the training, and 
purely as a defensive measure," answered Doctor 
Siidekum. "I can not repeat too often that what 
we Germans want is to be let alone, in order to 
work out our industrial, social and economic and po- 
litical problems for ourselves. That is the real pur- 
pose of our army; and, while accomplishing this 
purpose, the military training is good for every man 
who has it. Men are taught to take care of their 
health. Also, they get the idea of cooperation — soli- 
darity, the working in common to a common end, 
mutual effort for mutual result. All this — the care of 
the health and the other things — make them more effi- 
cient economic beings, better workers, stronger men." 

"What influence has Germany's military party on 
German policy and government ? It is our understand- 



GERMAN THOUGHT 201 

ing in America that this military party is a controlling 
and decisive force," I observed. 

"Such a thing as a military party, as a political force 
of any great influence, does not exist and is impossible 
in Germany," answered Doctor Siidekum. "The rank 
and file of the army are of and from the people. Every 
home in Germany has one or more. The officers are 
sworn in to their kings and princes by a special oath, 
but are in fact servants of the state; and most of them 
look at their duty from a mere technical point of view. 
There may be — quite natural ! — political feelings 
among them (I personally believe them to be mostly 
conservative) ; but they do not take any active part in 
politics; and can not; the law forbids it. We would 
not allow it, even if there were no law. There are so- 
called 'political generals' in Germany, but — out of 
service." 

"What will be the outcome of the war, if Germany 
wins?" I asked. 

"If Germany wins — and we shall win — one result 
will be the making of a new international law for the 
protection of private property on the sea at all times, 
during war no less than during peace," answered the 
German Socialist statesman. "This will be a blessing 
to the whole world. It will do more in a practical way 
to remove the cause of war than any one other single 
thing. 

"It is an old international law that private property 
on land is respected in war. While every army has 
the right and even the duty to destroy the enemy's guns, 
fortresses and other military properties, the private 



202 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

property of non-combatants (non-military citizens) 
must not be touched. H an army needs anything, say 
food, it can take it only by paying the owners. Private 
robbery is punished by our military courts with death. 

"Why should not this international law exist also on 
the sea?" asked Doctor Slidekum; and, continued 
he, "the right of a belligerent nation to stop and 
search foreign ships ; to destroy or confiscate war ma- 
terials like guns, powder and so on; to destroy, after 
duly filed notice to the world, all kinds of contraband; 
to stop blockade runners, or take them as prizes of war 
— the right to do all these things is not questioned. 

"But what ought to be forbidden is the stopping and 
destroying of purely merchant ships, carrying a thof- 
oughly innocent cargo, or taking them as prizes of 
war. Suppose a German merchant ship is carrying 
merchandise from Java to Seattle which could not pos- 
sibly be used in war. Why should that private ship and 
private property be seized and destroyed ? Why should 
not ships of all countries, which are private property 
engaged in carrying private and non-contraband prop- 
erty, in the course of peaceful commerce, having no 
connection with hostilities, be allowed to go on with 
this peaceful business? 

"Let warships fight warships, let merchant ships be 
searched and contraband or war munitions confiscated 
or destroyed ; but let private property and private busi- 
ness, having nothing to do with war, be respected 
on the sea as well as on the land. In fighting for this, 
Germany fights for the freedom of the seas, for all 
countries, and the whole world. 

"Time and again, the Germans and other European 



GERMAN THOUGHT 203 

nations (and as I remember the United States) have 
proposed to extend the international law concerning 
private property on land, during war, to cover the sea 
also," went on Dr. Siidekum. "This would mean free- 
dom of international commerce, even in war time, in- 
stead of ruining international commerce as the pres- 
ent system does ruin it. But England has declined 
always to permit this extension of international law 
to respect private property on the sea. The last time 
England refused was at the second Hague Conference. 
This means England's absolute and unrestricted su- 
premacy on the ocean. 

"This makes it plain that the only international 
danger, certainly the greatest at least, threatening the 
world, is British 'maritimism.' The fixed British policy 
of a navy as large as the navies of any two other 
countries combined, coupled with Great Britain's re- 
fusal to respect private property at sea, or to permit an 
international agreement for that purpose, make this 
clear. If Germany wins, private property (not con- 
nected with war) under any flag, will be respected on 
the sea as well as on the land, in war as well as in 
peace. 

"Heretofore, there has been for Germany but one 
alternative: either the extension of international law 
for the protection of private property upon the sea; or 
the protection of our commercial fleet by a big navy — 
big enough to brave the English. Every reasonable 
German was and is in favor of the first; but England 
would not abandon her 'right of piracy,' which was 
strongly denounced even in the English House of 
Lords, as one of the greatest reasons for war going on 
in the world. 



204 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"We do not deny that England needs a navy; but 
so do we," continued the German SociaHst thinker. 
"Mr. Winston Churchill, the first sea lord, said some 
time ago : *A big navy is a necessity for England ; for 
Germany it is a luxury.' As things now stand, this is 
not at all true. It would be true, perhaps, if England 
should respect private property on sea, but not other- 
wise. 

"England depends upon overseas commerce; but 
Germany also. We too want foodstuffs and raw mate- 
rials from foreign countries. How should we get 
them ? Only by our merchant fleet. And, unless pri- 
vate property on the sea be respected, what protection 
is there for German commerce against every thinkable 
British brutality? None, except our navy." 

"What do you say of the violation of Belgian neu- 
trality? Does not that give England solid ground for 
her contention that she is in this war to protect the in- 
tegrity of small states, and the sacredness of treaties?" 
I asked. 

"In view of her history," answered Doctor Siide- 
kum, "it is ridiculous for England to say that she went 
to war to defend the integrity of small states! What 
about the Transvaal Republic? What about the Or- 
ange Free State? What about Egypt? Look at her 
history — right down to the present hour ! 

"As to the breach of Belgian neutrality, the Chan- 
cellor, in a frank and noble way, avowed it to be wrong 
— from the merely formal point of view. We are of 
the same opinion. All our sympathy is naturally with 
that unfortunate nation. But, really, Belgian neutral- 
ity did not exist. Afterward, the breach of that neu- 



GERMAN THOUGHT 205 

trality seems to be justified, even from the formal 
point of view, there being no neutrality, but, instead, 
treaties with our enemies ! But be that as it may, it 
was a case of bare necessity — emergency. It was a 
question of Hfe and death with us. If we had not 
marched through Belgium, England and France would 
have done so. That is proved, now. We knew it 
then, and we were and are fighting for our lives." 

"What other result do you expect from the war ?" I 
inquired. 

The leader of the German Social Democratic party an- 
swered : "A more united Germany ; her people bound to- 
gether as never before. A stronger spirit of solidarity. 
The advance of liberal ideas and human reforms — 
these, and a peace which will protect us from future 
attacks, and allow us to go on in our own way, solving 
our own problems and developing our own civilization. 

"All we asked was to be let alone," Doctor Siidekum 
went on. "We were doing so much. Look at what we 
had already accomplished; an united, prosperous, and 
comparatively happy people. Look at the houses where 
our working men live — even the unskilled laborers ! 
We are well aware that there is much yet to do to bet- 
ter conditions, to give the population still more space, 
more air, more sun. All this and more we expect to 
do. The ameliorations worked during recent years give 
us hope that things will grow still better and better and 
in a comparatively short time. 

"See these working people, men and women — how 
neatly clothed they are; how well fed, how healthful 
looking!" exclaimed the German Socialist proudly. 
"See the working people's children, in school or 



206 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

at play on our public grounds! You have seen these 
things for yourself — the German laborer, his family, 
his home. You have seen the magnificent building 
owned by the metal-workers; the more beautiful one 
owned by the wood-workers; the splendid People's 
Theater, where classics are performed, built by the 
M^orking people. Have the English done such things 
for their working men ; or, rather, have English work- 
ing people done such things for themselves as German 
laborers have done for themselves? 

"All this betterment of housing conditions, of labor 
conditions generally, did not come of itself," Doctor 
Siidekum explained. "It was the outcome of our own 
strife and struggle. We built up our great popular 
party — let us call it the people's party; our well-man- 
aged trade unions; our cooperative shops, stores and 
factories. In brief, we became a national power and 
learned to use our influence directly and indirectly. 

"Yet they talk about our being against humanity 
and civilization ! But what do those terms mean ? Do 
they not mean the care of the weak? Is our care for 
the aged, through old age pensions, our industrial in- 
surance, our provision against sickness and accident, 
our system of labor exchanges to bring the employer 
and worker together — are these examples of barbar- 
ism? And remember that there is less poverty in 
Germany than in America, notwithstanding your great 
resources and your sparse population, as contrasted 
with our small resources and dense population." 

When I suggested that the old age pension is very 
small, Doctor Siidekum answered: 

"It is a beginning, and, practically, it is a great deal," 



GERMAN THOUGHT 207 

said the German reformer. "Take even the lowest fig- 
ure ; suppose an aged woman, living with her children 
and grandchildren. She is very useful about the house. 
Her old age pension makes, to that family, the differ- 
ence between industrial independence and indigence; 
it takes away the pinch of poverty. As I have said, 
there is less poverty in Germany than there is in 
America." 

"You spoke, Doctor Siidekum, about there being 
many volunteers among the million and a half German 
Socialists now at the front. This is amazing to us 
Americans, for we thought that all German Socialists 
now soldiers were forced by the government to bear 
arms against their will," I observed. 

"No, indeed," said Doctor Siidekum. "Thousands 
of Social Democrats volunteered and were accepted. 
Thousands of others volunteered, for whom there was 
no room, and who have not yet been taken. 

"Our beloved comrade Doctor Frank, of Mannheim, 
is a fine example of the German Socialist volunteer in 
this war. Doctor Frank was beyond military age ; he 
did not have to go ; could not be forced to go ; but he 
demanded to go, and he was accepted. And this great 
Socialist was among the first to fall in battle ; and he 
was the greatest peace advocate in Europe! That is 
only an example. 

"Jaurez, the leader of French Socialism, might have 
prevented this war," went on Doctor Siidekum; "he 
was strong enough in himself and brave enough to 
have opposed chauvinism and might have defeated it. 
He was the only man in France who could have de- 
feated it." 



208 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"But what about Liebknecht, who voted against the 
war appropriation?" I inquired. "We Americans un- 
derstand that he represented German Socialism in that 
vote." 

"Liebknecht stands practically alone in the party," 
declared the Socialist leader. "He is now a man with- 
out a hold in the party. His vote betrayed the German 
nation, and German Socialism. Doctor Frank, enlisting 
as a volunteer, demanding to be taken, and falling in 
battle, truly showed the spirit and feeling of German 
Social Democrats in this war." 

"Then," I asked, "is the German Social Democratic 
party supporting the government in this war?" 

"So far as prosecuting the war is concerned, yes. 
Our vote in the Reichstag showed that. The truth is 
that so long as this war lasts, and it must last until 
Germany wins a safe and honorable peace such as I 
have outlined, there are no political parties in Ger- 
many, no divisions of any kind. Social Democrats and 
Conservatives, Protestants and Catholics, capitalists 
and laboring men, are fighting side by side. The Ger- 
man people are as one man in this war." 

"And the women?" I suggested. 

"They are as heroic and determined as the men," 
replied Doctor Siidekum. "They are ready and willing 
for any sacrifice — just like the men. They know and 
feel their duty, exactly as do the men. You will find 
no break, no weakness, anywhere." 

"I suppose that your plans for social legislation 
must be suspended until the war is over," I observed. 

"Why, no," replied Doctor Sudekum. "Quite the 



GERMAN THOUGHT 209 

contrary ! Just see what has happened since the war 
began! See how the pressure of war conditions has 
increased social legislation in Germany! Now the 
government provides for working women during the 
childbirth period, four weeks before and four weeks 
after. That will never be given up. A maximum 
price has been fixed on the necessaries of life, such as 
food. That will never be given up, except in cases 
where it is wiser not to have it permanently. There 
never again will be a cornering of any foodstuff. The 
government at last has taken charge of basic necessities 
of life. We are striving for State insurance against 
non-employment during the period of enforced idle- 
ness ; we shall get that, too, in good time — at present 
there is little non-employment in Germany. 

'These and our other laws for the welfare of the 
common people are examples of what our enemies call 
German barbarism. They would be better off if they 
had some of the same kind of barbarism, themselves, 
instead of fighting to kill the Germany that has done 
such things, and will do more. Yet it is to destroy this 
modern Germany which has achieved so much that 
Russian, Japanese, French, Congoese, English, Sikhs, 
Gourkas, Arabs and Moors have been combined into 
an army of 'civilization' ! According to our enemies, we 
Germans are the savages, and the cultivated Slav 
mii::hik, who can neither read nor write, the gentle 
Turco from northern Africa, the peaceful Sikh and 
Gourka from India, and all the motley horde gathered 
together to crush us Germans — this motley horde are 
the 'civilized,' the 'cultured' and the 'refined' !" 



210 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 
TJie German Trades Unionist 

"There is no political party in Germany now, and 
there will be none until the war is over and Germany 
is victorious," said Albert Baumeister, Assistant Sec- 
retary of the International Federation of Trades 
Unions.* "We Socialists and trades unionists are in 
this war to the very end. Doctor Siidekum is right 
when he says that with us Germans this is a working 
man's war. 

"The German working men feel that England is re- 
sponsible," went on Mr. Baumeister. "She wished to 
break down German trade, by which the product of 
German working men is disposed of. The English 
could not or would not meet us in fair competition. 
We have different methods of work, better organiza- 
tion, better education. It is to this and other similar 
things that our industrial superiority is due; not to 
longer hours and better pay, as the English imagine." 

"Do these differences," I asked, "grow out of a dif- 
ferent ideal of work and life?" 

"Yes," said Mr. Baumeister, "that is the origin of 
the difference. The German ideal is that a man has 
never finished ; that he should go on growing and de- 
veloping all the time. With the German, learning is a 
passion. Our continuation schools are examples of 
this. The Trades Union and Socialist schools are other 
examples. These are so crowded with applicants that 
as yet we have been able to admit only officers of the 
unions and societies to learn Engflish and French. 



* This conversation is from notes carefully taken which were 
read and approved by Mr. Baumeister at the time. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 211 

"Gray-haired working men of sixty may be seen in 
these schools mastering a foreign language," continued 
the German Trades Unionist. "We have lectures by 
experts, paid for by the Trades Unions, on economic 
and social legislation. Every Trades Union has its own 
weekly journal. There are forty-seven of these unions, 
and their weeklies have a circulation of three millions. 
The Socialist party has ninety-four daily newspapers 
in Germany, with one million six hundred thousand 
subscribers, printed in sixty-five office buildings owned 
by the party. The building of the Vorwarts, in Berlin, 
cost six million marks. I mention these things as a few 
illustrations of the intellectual activity of German 
working men." 

"I have heard," I remarked, "that duty as a partial 
reward for his labor is an element of the German la- 
borer's concept of life and work." 

"Yes," said Mr. Baumeister; "there is much truth 
in that. And I think it peculiar to the German char- 
acter. A German working man works for wages, of 
course, and demands and expects to get a just share of 
the wealth he creates. But also, in doing his work, he 
feels that he is doing his duty in building up industrial 
Germany and making possible better industrial condi- 
tions for his fellow workers, and those who shall come 
after him. There is always in the German mind, a 
thought of the future, in his heart, a feeling for the 
common welfare." 

This was almost the idea that had been expressed by 
Doctor Rathenau, who is a very large employer of 
labor. 

"I can understand," went on Mr. Baumeister, "that 



212 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

it will be difficult for non-Germans to grasp this, or 
perhaps to believe it. But it is true. The best single 
expression for the German working man's ideal of life 
and labor is 'the spirit of solidarity.' " 

I repeated Professor von Harnack's definition of 
"Kultur." 

"That is very brilliant and eloquent," said Mr. 
Baumeister, "but German working men would put it 
all in these four words: 'The spirit of solidarity.' 

"The English do not even comprehend our German 
ideal of constant growth of the individual," he con- 
tinued; "the acquiring of more learning day by day; 
the mutual spirit; the putting of duty into work and 
getting satisfaction from it, and all the other things 
from which flow our better methods, better work and 
better living. Even if they did comprehend it, they 
would not be willing to adopt it. Yet without it, they 
can not match us, so they have set out to crush us." 

Mr. Baumeister went into detail as to how England 
might crush German industry, his explanation being 
substantially the same as that of General Director Bal- 
lin of the Hamburg- American Line, Doctor Siidekum, 
the Social Democratic leader, and Doctor Rathenau, 
President of the General Electric. 

"But that might mean a long war," I suggested. 

"Yes," answered Mr. Baumeister, "the war may 
last a long time. At first, I thought it would last 
about a year. But now, I think it will last longer. 
It may last several years." 

"But will you working men consent to so long a 
war?" I asked. 

"Yes ; and we shall go on to the last," said Mr. Bau- 



GERMAN THOUGHT 213 

meister. "We are ready to make any sacrifice. We 
are ready to give our lives. Many of us have given 
life already." 

"Who began this war — who do the working men 
think began this war?" I inquired. 

"Russia began it; but the working men believe that 
England is to blame," said the German Trades Union- 
ist. "If England had not promised to help Russia, 
Russia would not have acted. And England had a real 
motive — to break down German industry." 

"But Russia had no such motive?" said I. 

"No;" answered Mr. Baumeister. "It was a mix- 
ture of motives that moved Russia; the pan-Slavist 
propaganda, the rotten Grand Ducal party, Russia's 
justifiable desire to get to the sea, and another rea- 
son, which I shall mention in a moment. With any 
one of these motives absent, it is just possible that the 
others would not have been strong enough to have 
caused Russia to act as she did. For example : If Russia 
had been allowed to keep Constantinople, at the end 
of the Turkish war, or Port Arthur, perhaps Russia 
might not have acted now. England was the moving 
force behind the scenes that kept Russia from the sea 
in both cases." 

"What was the other motive which German work- 
ing men think induced Russia to act?" I asked. 

"Liberalism in Russia," said the Trades Unionist 
Secretary; "that springs from Germany, you know. 
Every one of our social or political reforms, either 
accomplished or proposed, had its reflex in Russia. 
The agitation for popular government in Russia, re- 
sulting in the Douma, really came from Germany. 



214 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

All this got substantial help from German working 
men. A backward state can not maintain its position 
next to a liberal state. There were strikes and up- 
heavals, and all sorts of labor disturbances as the 
result. So Russia wanted to overthrow such an an- 
noying neighbor. We working men think this one 
reason for Russia's action. Yet we do not dislike the 
Russian people; we wish to help them." 

"But," said I, "France is liberal." 

"Yes," said Mr. Baumeister, "that is true. And 
no German wants to fight France. France made this 
mistake of lending too much money to Russia — more 
than 20,000,000,000 of francs. She has no reason to 
fight us, nor we to fight her. We do not compete 
nor conflict with one another, industrially, commer- 
cially or economically." 

"How will the war end?" I inquired. 

"Germany will win, sure," came the quick positive 
answer. "We can not be hurt, financially. See how 
the appeal by the Emperor was answered. It is im- 
possible to starve us; the food monopoly, which the 
Trades Unionists first urged at the outbreak of the 
war, makes it certain that we shall have food for any 
number of years. The prisoners of war will work in the 
fields. Even if we were hard pressed, every German 
is ready for any sacrifice. The spirit of sacrifice 
amounts to a religion among the German people. 
There is nothing we are not ready to give, or do." 

"Was not Doctor Frank, the Socialist peace advocate, 
who enlisted and was killed, a Jew?" I asked. 

"Yes, and what he did represents the feelings of 
the Jewish people in Germany," said Mr. Baumeister. 



GERMAN THOUGHT 215 

"They are as much in earnest for the war as the work- 
ing men. They know, as we know, that only by pre- 
serving the nation can we build up reforms." 

"Do you working men then look for more reforms 
as a result of the war?" I inquired. 

"Certainly," answered the German Trades Unionist. 
"Germany will come out of the war a more unified 
people, with a stronger nationalism. There will be a 
more liberal government. H in our industrial develop- 
ment there has been any of the dross of selfishness, it 
will be burned out, and we shall emerge a purified 
Germany. Liberalism is spreading rapidly, as the war 
goes on. It has shown itself in laws already adopted." 

"What has been your observation of the wives, 
daughters and mothers of working men?" I inquired. 

"As united, staunch and determined as the men," 
was the answer. "At the outbreak of the war, there 
were some tears. I have seen none since." 



IX 

ESPECIALLY SHELLED : FRENCH FRONT* 

THE guns are booming, nor is the sound so far 
away. For an hour their thunder has been 
growing louder as you approach. Soon you are to 
stand beside batteries and later in front of them, their 
metal singing a few feet above you. Several officers 
go with you to a certain point where the French guns 
are most thickly planted. Through a village you pass, 
where, every day, German shells fall, and on toward 
a great hill up which the road winds at a sharp incline. 

Luckily this highway is bordered by trees so that 
the half dozen automobiles bearing the escort of 
officers, can not be seen from the German positions, 
except at one point where for a space the road is 
unscreened; and you are to find later that German 
watchfulness has not overlooked it. At a certain well 
sheltered spot near the crest of the hill, the automobiles 
are stopped — to go further means their certain dis- 
covery and an equally certain hail of German shells. 
From this point, all walk forward, for single indi- 
viduals can not be discovered easily from the German 
observation stations. 

In a few minutes you are among the big guns. Mar- 
velously well hidden they are. Some are planted in 
* At the French front, February 26 and 27, 1915. 

216 




Big gun of a heavy masked battery at the French front, 

February 27lh, 1915. " A growth of small pine trees thinly veils 

the location." 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 217 

natural hollows ; for others great excavations have been 
dug. A growth of small pine trees thinly veils the 
location. At first you think this little wood quite 
abundant, for the small trees are very numerous, and 
you observe that the guns seem to be located where 
the trees are thickest. 

On noting this, you are laughingly informed that 
most of these trees have been cut and brought from 
another place, and are fixed in the earth to resemble 
their natural companions. With such skill had this 
tree planting been done that your surprise is plain 
when told that they are the work of military art, and 
the French officers laugh heartily, pleased at this proof 
of their resourcefulness. 

Also the big guns are so covered with evergreen 
boughs that an aviator would not likely suspect what 
they conceal ; and his photograph would show nothing 
except an apparently natural wood with equally natural 
undergrowth in occasional small open spaces. These 
monsters are not now in action, and the gun squads 
are busy about the details of the batteries, or attending 
to some household duty of their underground living 
places. You go intO' many of these, and find them so 
comfortable that you gladly would exchange them for 
some stuffy hotel rooms you have frozen or smothered 
in. 

Other batteries are in rapid action, however, and 
to these you make your way. They are located a con- 
siderable distance in advance of the big ordnance. 
You pause for a while to note their work, and then : 

"Would you like to go to our observation post? 
You can see the effect of our shells from there, and 



218 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

also see and hear our telephone system at work," po- 
litely explains the French major in command of all 
the batteries at this strategic location. 

"Orders are telephoned from there to each battery," 
he went on, "the exact distance, elevation and direc- 
tion for each shot and the frequency of our fire." 

Beyond these batteries then you make your way, 
to an open space, perhaps three acres in extent. Ap- 
parently this once has been a field, for no trees grow 
upon it. You note a great hole in the earth a few feet 
from the path upon this tiny field, and step aside to 
estimate its depth and diameter ; but : 

"Please keep to the path," the major suggests. "The 
field is quite exposed," he courteously explains. "The 
path itself winds along the brow of the hill, which 
is heavily wooded and thick trees, therefore, protect 
this narrow roadway from hostile observation." 

"Crash ! Crash ! Crash !" go the French guns, now 
behind you, and shooting over your head. The shells' 
song is a chorus. Just as was the case when at the 
German batteries near Messines, Belgium, Arras, 
France, and at Bolimoff, Russian Poland, the music 
of the shell is distinctively attractive. But the ex- 
plosions of the guns as they are fired buffet your 
ear drums with vicious blows of sound. Curiously 
enough, no answering shells come in reply for the time 
being, although a few hours before the German gun- 
ners tried to find out exactly where these concealed 
batteries were, as is shown by the occasional pits on 
the surface of the little field. 

And now, just on the edge of the hill, facing the 
German lines, you enter the French observation point 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 219 

and central battery telephone station. It is, perhaps, 
half underground, the upper half being so skilfully ar- 
ranged with earth upon poles and vegetation and 
shrubbery over all, that a very short distance it can 
not be distinguished from other similar bumps on the 
hill's knotty forehead. The hill at this point drops 
sharply down to the valley below. 

Through two wide, narrow, strongly-framed slits, 
looking out over the valley and to the distant heights, 
you watch the effect of the French artillery. 

"You see that little wood in front of that first line 
of trees? It is to the left of the church tower in the 
village," asks a French officer. And when finally you 
have located the grove — "We think the Germans are 
setting up machine guns there. We are shelling that 
wood to prevent them," he explains. 

"How did you discover that the Germans were doing 
that?" you inquire. 

"We are not sure of it, of course," he answers, "but 
we saw some movement there early this morning and 
we deduced the German purpose. It doesn't hurt any- 
thing to take precautions." 

"But," you observe, as you scan the valley, "your 
shells are falling to the right and the left of the wood. 
That is bad marksmanship, is it not?" 

"Oh, no!" he answers, "those shells you see bursting 
on the open field have fallen exactly where they were 
intended to go. The German trenches run along there, 
and our shells are falling very near them if, indeed, 
not on the edge of the trenches themselves. Other 
shells are going into the wood — but of course you can 
not see them explode." 



220 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Crash! Crash!" still go the French cannon. In a 
moment you learn to watch for the spout of mingled 
earth and smoke which marks each missile's fall, and 
think that you can locate by observing the difference in 
time between the gun's firing and the shell's explosion 
the gun that fired it. 

"It is a matter of exact mathematics," elucidates the 
artillery commander. "Here are photographs of the 
German trenches; they were taken from our aero- 
planes," and he lays before you several pictures, with 
white angular lines upon the dark brown. These pho- 
tographs were taken from a great height, directly over 
the German trenches, and show with exactness every 
turn and bend of them. Such are the unreal and im- 
possible feats of photography in modern war — unreal 
and impossible, yet actually accomplished, and from 
flying machines going at great speed. 

"These photographs," explained the artillery expert, 
"are traced upon our maps. By calculating the dis- 
tances between known points, each detail is reduced 
to scale with mathematical exactitude. Modern ar- 
tillery work in its execution is a matter of pure math- 
ematics. Any error in shell firing is noted, and the 
proper change in calculation made. For instance, we 
find out by these photographs and by computing dis- 
tances in the way I have told you, just where the 
enemy's trench or battery is ; then we calculate the 
exact trajectory and know before it leaves the gun 
where the shell will fall. The rest is just hammering 
away." 

The French fire was growing faster and faster. 

"Why don't the Germans answer?" I asked. 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 221 

"Our aeroplanes are over their batteries. If they 
fired, our airmen would locate some which we have not 
yet found." 

"But you do not keep your aeroplanes over their 
batteries all the time?" 

"No, of course not; but they are there now. Per- 
haps the German guns will answer when our aero- 
planes leave." 

And answer they do, not a quarter of an hour later. 
We stroll back to the guns which are in action. As we 
approach them, "Cease firing!" orders the major of 
artillery, in an instant's lull between shots. "There 
might be an accident," he solicitously tells you. 
"Something might slip, you see, and — there might be 
an accident." We are walking toward and slightly 
to the left of the guns, which are firing almost over 
our heads just to our right, and are so close that 
the singing shells are passing not more than ten or 
fifteen feet above us. Yes, to be sure, something 
might slip, and there might be an accident. But there 
is not. 

"All right, my Captain!" answers the gun corporal, 
and everybody laughs. 

"The joke is that the Major here used to be their 
Captain, and the soldiers can't get over calling him 'My 
Captain.' They seem to forget that he is Major now," 
an officer explains. Such is the democracy of the 
French army in war. 

Then stepping to the side of and past the battery, 
you ask if you may watch the guns at work for a 
while. 

"Why, certainly! \Ye are very proud of our gun- 



222 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ners and almost as proud of our guns. They are our 
'75's' you know — perhaps you have heard of them 
before?" 

And heard of them you had — everybody in France 
is talking of this 75 mm. field piece. So you take your 
stand four or five feet from the breech of one of the 
guns, and study the handling of these famous French 
cannon. It is astonishingly rapid. On either side of 
the gun's breech sits an artilleryman; the one on the 
left seems to be attending to some apparatus control- 
ling the elevation of the gun; the one on the right 
pulls the lever which discharges it. Others pass the 
cartridges. All these men have their ears stuffed with 
cotton. Those who give and receive telephone order-s 
have their ears protected by the close-fitting receivers. 

"Put your fi.ngers to your ears," advises an officer. 
At first you do so, but become so fascinated with the 
quick accuracy of the men, the easy action of the gun, 
and the nonchalance of the gunners, that you twice 
neglect the precaution and get a smack of sound in your 
ears that makes them tingle for many minutes after- 
ward. 

You are now midway in a day at the French front. 
These hours of incident opening delightfully have sped 
by on flashing wings, each moment laden with the mild 
pleasure of possible danger; and they are soon to close, 
like the climax of a play, with a snap of hitherto un- 
en joyed experience ; for your party is presently to have 
the pleasant distinction of being especially and directly 
shelled by the well-served German ordnance. 

The day before visiting the French batteries, and 
at another part of the French front, you had gone 




Famous French "7o" in rapid action, French front, February 27th, 
1915. The Artillerymen's ears are stuffed with cotton. It is an 
instant before firing. A gunner stands ready with another shell. 
"The easy action of the gun, the nonchalance of the gunners 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 223 

with the commander of a certain French army, 
General Franchet d'Esperey, whom some call the hero 
of the battle of the Marne, on his inspection of a 
French aviation camp. Uncommonly well arranged, 
you find it. Precision and accuracy mark the move- 
ments of both officers and men about this celebrated 
flying war-squadron. Many of the mechanical crea- 
tures of the air stand in a row waiting for duty. In 
several great hangars are others ready for service. The 
aviators are busy about their tasks, coming sharply to 
attention as the General passes them on his tour of 
inspection. 

"It's lucky for you," said General Franchet d'Es- 
perey, "that we are just sending out three machines 
typical of three branches of our aeroplane service. And 
I am glad of it," he went on. "We want you to see 
everything." 

One after another, three flying machines leave the 
ground. Each airman is clad in fur-lined leather 
drawn over thick warm clothing; head and face are 
similarly protected. Not the smallest particle of the 
face is uncovered; for they are to mount to heights 
where the thermometer registers far below zero and 
exposure, even for a minute, means freezing. One 
young aviator standing by, who, a few days before, 
had uncautiously taken off his glove when at a freezing 
altitude in order to take more accurately a photograph 
of the enemy's works, had his hand frozen badly. 

The General examines the young airman's hand as 
carefully as he notes everything else : Alas ! this inci- 
dent prevents your having the rare experience of 
making one of these military flights yourself; for the 



224 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

General generously had offered you this privilege, 
but changes his mind when he looks at the hand and 
then at you. 

"Too cold !" he remarks. Evidently he thinks you 
too unseasoned to risk such an arctic experience in the 
winter air. 

One of the aeroplanes is to make a long distance 
reconnaissance. It is a new type of machine, capable, 
you are informed, of a speed of two hundred fifty 
kilometers an hour; certainly it flies with incredible 
rapidity, mounting in vast spirals to an immense 
height, and then off with such speed that it quickly is 
lost to sight. 

Another machine, a biplane, goes more slowly, but 
still very, very fast. It has wireless equipment, photo- 
graphing apparatus, and is to discover, if possible, cer- 
tain German batteries. Still a third is for artillery 
work, you are told. It will drop bombs on the enemy's 
guns if it can. Devices for accuracy in bomb dropping 
as well as other military contrivances of these war air- 
craft are shown and explained to you; but you do not 
understand their mechanical details. 

How swift their flight ! Although the day is cloud- 
less, these craft of the heavens vanish even as you 
look! 

"Will you come with me to Rheims?" presently 
suggests the General. "I am sorry that I shall have 
to leave you there," he remarks. 

"The General is going to bestow the Legion of Honor 
on a wounded soldier who won it as all our men do by 
distinguished gallantry in action," explains an officer 
who is of our party. "It is the General's greatest 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 225 

pleasure, next to actual fighting itself; and he has 
plenty of it to do; for even the enemy must admit the 
courage of our men." 

"They do, and most generously." You are glad to 
give this information; and the officer's face lights up 
with surprise and, you think, with pleasure. 

And so, with General Franchet d'Esperey, in his 
automobile, you are whirled toward Rheims. Already 
you had come greatly to like and admire this fighting 
French commanding officer; and this reminds you of 
the curious fact that, with notably few exceptions, the 
soldiers, either German or French, are quite the most 
agreeable of all the persons one meets either in Ger- 
many or France. The fighting men, on both sides, 
have common traits which irresistibly attract. They 
are simple, for one thing ; simple and direct as a child. 
There is no mystifying subtlety about them. The suc- 
cessful officer is not complex. He has decision, too. 
And he is unfailingly cordial. 

Without an exception, in your whole experience, 
every officer you have met on both sides has been po- 
lite and considerate — and somehow, you have felt that 
it is no mere formal thing but welling out like a clean 
spring of friendliness from a heart without guile. 
With the officers you have met, both French and Ger- 
man, everything said and done seemed genuine, un- 
affected; neither in France nor in Germany have 
these brave men attempted to impress you — and after 
much experience you are convinced that this type of 
man is incapable of the little tricks which constitute 
the legerdemain of the courtier or politician. 

And their attention to their duties— it has been a joy 



226 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

to observe their conscientiousness and ef^ciency. Gen- 
eral Franchet d'Esperey is an admirable example of all 
these soldierly qualities. You have ample opportunity 
to note this fact, on this red-letter day when you 
have the good luck to be v^ith this fighting French chief 
on one of his innumerable tours of inspection. Noth- 
ing escapes the eye of Franchet d'Esperey. You go 
w^ith him into a semi-underground soldier dwelling and 
observe him test the bread and take in with his swift 
and critical glance every detail of that war abode. 

It is said that he enters the trenches themselves in 
the same way and with the same method. He sees to 
every detail himself; he compliments or criticizes the 
private soldier as well as the officer ; but apparently he 
does both in such a manner as to make all feel that 
they are his comrades, for all, officer and private alike, 
adore their General. Only one criticism was heard of 
him — his unconsciousness of fear or danger. This 
estimate is borne out by your own observation. 

Nothing could be more heartsome or pleasant than 
spending an hour or two with this thoroughgoing sol- 
dier. His table talk at luncheon makes you forget 
your appetite. For Franchet d'Esperey is full of ideas, 
and very clear ideas they are, and he speaks them out 
in forthright words, as if ordering a charge. His big 
brown eyes look squarely into yours — fighting eyes, 
they are; his powerful jaws snap together as he makes 
an assertion or asks a question. Sometimes he stamps 
his foot to emphasize his point as, for example, when 
he tells what the Allies are going to do to the Ger- 
mans. 

His thought and words are not confined merely to 







Ileadijuarters 5th French Army. Col. de Lardemelle, chief of 
staff to General Franchet d'Esperey, in centre. The French 
officers are highly trained and efficient. 'One notable military 
fact of this war is that France appears to be extremely well 
equipped with highly educated and seasoned officers." 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 227 

the military phase of the conflict; he is just as clear 
on the political issues which he thinks are being ar- 
gued on the battlefield, and upon the big reconstruct- 
ive work which, in his opinion, must be done if the 
Allies win. For this fighting General is something of 
a statesman as well as a soldier, although first and last 
and in every fiber of his being, Franchet d'Esperey 
is the soldier. Born in Algiers, he has taken part in 
every military conflict France has had almost since his 
boyhood — in Africa, China, Tonking, Indo-China, 
Madagascar, in short, in every part of the world where 
France's battle flag has waved or French guns have 
thundered. 

At his businesslike headquarters, the dominant im- 
pression which the visitor gets is that of discipline; 
rigid, exacting and stern. Orders are given with clean- 
cut abruptness — with force not to be misunderstood. 
A not unimportant officer comes panting in response to 
a sudden command to report. He gets his clear, brief 
instruction, and, "Hurry, now !" explodes the General 
— the curt words leap from his lips like the shell from 
a "75." 

The General's chief aide. Colonel de Lardermelle, is 
quite as peremptory. "He is a magnificent soldier, and 
a martinet," an officer informs you. 

He looks and acts the part. He is a professional 
soldier, as is General Franchet d'Esperey himself, and 
indeed, all of the higher commanding officers up to the 
supreme head of the army, and of the nation. General 
Joffre himself. This fighting chief aide of a fighting 
General is of a family of professional soldiers, you 
are told; six brothers there were, three already dead 



228 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

on the field of battle, yet no smallest sign of a visible 
impression made upon the three who remain, you are 
informed; for with them it is an incident of duty, a 
part of the day's work, the fortune of war. There is 
no nonsense about General Franchet d'Esperey, his 
chief aide, nor indeed his whole staff. It is business 
with them, direct, blunt, imperative, not to be ques- 
tioned. The great and deadly business of war! 

This much is said of these men because they are 
excellent examples of the French officer; and one 
notable military fact of this war is that France ap- 
pears to be extremely well equipped with highly edu- 
cated and seasoned officers. If, as is the common re- 
port, the new volunteer British officers are not well 
trained, they are sure to get sharp instruction from the 
French officers, so administered as to be obeyed, 
whether compliance is agreeable or not. 

"Like Indians, eh?" remarks General Franchet d'Es- 
perey, as he points toward a collection of huts not 
far from the road. They are constructed of small 
branches of trees and thatched with straw or dried 
branches. They are the homes of soldiers who, it is 
said, prefer these abodes to the more civilized accom- 
modations of well-built houses. Many of the red- 
trousered, blue-coated and red-capped "hairy ones," 
as the French call their soldiers in this war, are about 
their various daily tasks; some are washing, some 
mending clothes ; some writing, some doing this, that, 
or the other. Without exception, all appear robust 
and in the high tide of health. You note the physical 
fitness of the men all day long. 

"They are well fed, and the open-air life is good for 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 229 

them," explains the General. "They really enjoy it." 
And, the next day many miles away: "What do you 
think of our men?" inquires an officer after your long 
hard hours among the booming guns and in the 
crowded trenches, almost encircled by the German war- 
pits, had drawn to its interesting close. 

"They are a healthy-looking lot," you answer. "The 
campaign does not seem to hurt them physically." 

"On the contrary, life at the front has actually im- 
proved their physical condition," explains the officer. 
"You see, they are in the open air all the time. Then 
they have good wholesome food and plenty of it. The 
mind is occupied, too — something is liable to happen 
any minute. And then there is nothing for them to 
drink — no alcoholic drink, I mean. In short, their 
lives are simpler, more normal. That explains the im- 
provement in their health," 

Soon our automobile approaches Rheims : 

"They shelled the town yesterday — seventeen people 
were killed," observes the General casually; "and," he 
continues reassuringly, "they bombarded it this morn- 
ing, also, although we have no troops in the town." 

"Why waste powder on it then?" you inquire. 

"Heaven knows ! You never can tell what they will 
do ! We may get some shells ourselves. That's why I 
sent back the other automobiles. They can see us," he 
explains, "and more than one automobile at a time 
would attract attention. The Germans would think 
something was up. And there is no especial point in 
getting shot at just for the fun of the thing." 

Laughing at this quaint, military humor, into 
Rheims you go. No shells fall, however, during your 



230 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

brief stay, though great spurts of smoke from a point 
in the air some distance away mark the premature ex- 
plosion of a German missile. 

In Rheims itself, the curious indifference of civilians 
to the dangers of active warfare, which so surprised 
you when you first observed it on the eastern and west- 
ern German battle fronts, again compels your notice. 
People are about the streets apparently as usual. Evi- 
dently it has been market day, and the market women 
are leisurely gathering their unsold stock. 

There is a shattered house here and there, and now 
and again, a hole in a wall, made by a German shell ; 
though, in comparison with the artillery havoc you 
have so often seen in other places, the damage in 
Rheims does not startle you ; perhaps familiarity with 
ruins wrought by battle has made anything but whole- 
sale demolition commonplace. 

The cathedral has suffered considerable damage, 
though not nearly so much as you had expected; for 
you had thought it utterly reduced. Yet there it 
stands, its two noble towers rising against the sky in 
all their ancient majesty. But most of the old 
carved figures upon the archway of the right door are 
shattered and cracked off. Strangely enough, those 
adorning the central and left arches are, for the most 
part, intact. About the base of each entrance are thick 
layers of sandbags, perhaps fifteen or twenty feet high. 
These, you are informed, are to absorb the shock and 
prevent splintering in case a shell should fall at these 
points. 

The interior of the church is stripped and bare; the 
rich tapestries, you are told, were sent away before the 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 231 

Germans reached Rheims. Many of the medieval 
carvings on the pillars and walls at the front of the 
interior of the cathedral have been split off, the effect 
of fire, you are advised. Some of these have been 
collected and the slabs arranged upon the floor. 

The irreparable loss is the shattering of the priceless 
thirteenth century stained glass which made the 
glorious windows of the cathedral at Rheims artistic 
monuments of one craftsmanship of the middle ages 
now lost to the world. These bits of unrestorable art, 
so cunningly fixed in the marvelous pattern of these 
ancient and noble windows, were shaken from their 
places by the concussion of exploding shells; not one 
of these bulky missiles appears to have entered the 
windows themselves, whose intrica;te framework re- 
mains as the pious workmen made it hundreds of years 
ago. But the entire effect is ruined by the dislodgment 
of the countless pieces which have fallen away and 
been destroyed. 

Curiously enough, the modern glass, in one or two 
of the great lower windows, is not even cracked. It 
easily could have been replaced if destroyed; but the 
delicate and exquisite ancient glass of the splendid 
upper windows and those above the doors w^hich were 
wont to give to the interior of the cathedral of Rheims 
its unearthly beauty, never can be restored. 

The arched flying buttresses supporting the walls 
from the outside have disappeared ; and without these, 
you are informed, the cathedral walls will, in the course 
of time, give way; but skilled masonry and good en- 
gineering should be able to replace these massive sup- 
ports in a comparatively short time. It was questioned, 



2Z2 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

however, whether modern constructive craft is equal to 
the task. 

Strangely enough, the big building (the archiepisco- 
pal palace) where the priests and cathedral attendants 
lived, which stood near the sacred edifice perhaps not 
two hundred feet away, is entirely demolished — by fire, 
you are told. 

Such was the condition of the cathedral at Rheims 
on the afternoon of February 26, 1915, as it appeared 
to an unskilled observer, upon hasty inspection. But 
the priest in charge said that it had been hit several 
times, although the solid heavy stone had withstood 
the shock; he said, too, that an unexploded shell at 
that moment was lying on the cathedral roof. 

But let us return to the scenes of the following day 
at another and far distant part of the battle line. Let 
us hark back through the zone of fire to that point of 
the extreme French front where the mighty artillery 
duel is leaping to one of its innumerable climaxes of 
ferocious activity, already described. And there, hav- 
ing seen all that is to be seen and heard more than 
plenty, but still fascinated and loath to leave, yet eager 
for the trenches, where an hitherto unwitnessed drama 
awaits you, these words are both regretted and wel- 
comed : 

"We must be going, now, if you would like to see 
the trenches thoroughly. There is not more than 
enough time to do that well while there is clear day- 
light, for they are a considerable distance away," sug- 
gests an officer accompanying you. 

To the automobiles, then, you make your way, gently 




At the moment of firing. Another shell being carried to the gun. 
The cannonading is very heavy at this point. A big German 
shell fell nearby a moment after this picture was taken. "A 
thundering explosion rends the air." French front, February 
27th, 1!)15. 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 233 

bitten by disappointment that nothing thrilhng has 
happened. 

"Just my luck," you observe to an officer. "Shells 
go, but none come." 

"Well, there's one !" he exclaims sharply, as a thun- 
dering explosion rends the air a little distance behind 
you. You turn at the sound and a great column of 
earth and smoke flies into the air, not an hundred yards 
from where you stand. You had gone about that dis- 
tance from the batteries, and to your unexpert eyes 
the German shell seems to have fallen upon the very 
gun and among the very men whose work you had 
been admiring only a few minutes before; the trees 
hide from you the spot where it fell and exploded. 

Have the French gunners been hurt, you wonder, 
and suggest to the major that we go back and see. 

But : "Very sorry," he replies a little acidly. "You 
really have no time, if you wish to make the trenches." 
And then another fountain of earth and smoke flares 
upward behind you. And again a twisting whine as 
a third German shell makes its descent. 

"Something the matter with their guns," remarks 
an officer, "or that shell would make a straight sound, 
not a corkscrew whine." 

"Still, it seemed formidable enough," you suggest. 

"They are dangerous but in a curious way," observes 
a seasoned artillery officer. 

"I think that was a big shell. If it falls close to 
you, you may not be hurt by the fragments though 
you may be paralyzed by the concussion. It scoops 
out a lot of earth and covers you with dirt; it is the 



234 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

men who are standing just a little way off whom the 
fragments of the shell strike and tear badly." 

But the thought that the robust-looking and care- 
lessly courageous young soldiers among whom you 
had stood only a few moments before as they served 
their guns had been hurt, will not leave you. Not till 
a week later do you learn that none of them was 
killed, none wounded. 

You make your way to the automobiles and feel that 
for another day once more fate has cheated you of any 
real excitement; for you are going to the trenches 
now ; and familiarity has advised you to expect nothing 
extraordinary there. But fate is kind, and mild en- 
tertainment is being provided from the air a thousand 
feet above you. 

The French fire has been so rapid and heavy that 
the accustomed alertness of the Germans is sharpened, 
even beyond its usual razor edge. As the automobiles 
descend the hill and pass the short open space : 

"Bang!" comes a sound directly over your automo- 
bile. 

"Huh !" exclaims a French officer. "That was only 
a '77' !" a term the French use for the shells of the 
small-calibered German field guns. Still, if that ''^T' 
had hit any one of the automobiles, there would have 
been another story. As it is, the German marksman- 
ship appears to be fairly good. 

But it is not until you are well in the trenches six or 
seven miles away that you find how closely the Ger- 
man gunners can follow a moving party, even when 
going, apparently unseen, through zigzag passages. 

Away you speed miles upon miles in the open coun- 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 235 

try. At last you alight and make your way for a long, 
long distance through a deep trench called an "ap- 
proach." At intervals, other "approaching" trenches 
join the main "approach" at right angles. About half 
a mile from the village toward which you are making 
your way, where the local trench headquarters are lo- 
cated, the local commanding officer meets you. Very 
attractive and gentle-mannered he is, delicate of face 
and figure, spectacles before his mild blue eyes, sug- 
gesting the student, artist or dreamer. He is an archi- 
tect by profession but almost as carefully schooled in 
the military art as are France's superb professional 
soldiers. 

He leads the way, and finally the monotonous 
walk through the "approaching" trench comes to an 
end, and you are in the streets of the tiny town. The 
major takes you to his personal headquarters first of 
all. Down the steps into the cellar of an old building 
you go, and stand in the brain center of this minute 
fraction of the French front. It is quite comfortable, 
and even interesting. A bed, a desk, a telephone 
switchboard with wires leading to every part of the 
trenches and light batteries under his command— you 
are pleased with the businesslike appearance of this 
subterranean headquarters. 

Then up and out upon the street once more, along 
which you make your way. 

"It is very dangerous indeed here," suggests a cer- 
tain officer from the War Department in Paris. You 
know that there must be peril if this man makes such 
a remark, for you have heard something of his reck- 
lessness, such as standing for half an hour among fall- 



236 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ing shells, trying to take a snapshot of one of them 
exploding. 

Still, nothing happens and you watch two young 
masked soldiers at bayonet practice within a building 
opening on the street, surrounded by their compan- 
ions, shouting and applauding as if at a boxing match. 
Along the street you go, and become conscious of a 
curious phenomenon. The village seems utterly de- 
serted, and yet you have a sense that it is teeming 
with life. 

And so it is. Here and there a window is full of 
faces. Hardly a doorway that does not reveal some 
one. At the end of the street are the remains of what 
once was plainly a charming church, picturesque, and 
with a sort of dainty dignity, even in its ruins. You 
enter, and observe that in one corner, which is still in- 
tact, a mass is being said. 

And so, on to the real trenches, the fighting trenches 
of the French, You mount to an observation point 
just before, and scan in all directions the field of action, 
or rather the field of waiting. The French trenches 
you find thrust forward somewhat like a horseshoe; 
the German trenches circling them in front and on left 
and right. 

"Will you have this seat ? It is pleasanter, and you 
can see better." 

It is the French lookout who is speaking, and in 
perfect English. He is a small-statured man, with 
great mild blue eyes, his intellectual face covered with 
beard ; he can not be over twenty-five years old. 

"Where did you learn such perfect English?" you 
inquire as, thanking him, you take the proffered seat. 




A little church, beautiful even in its ruins, in a French village. 

I>assed on the way to the French trenches just beyond. The 

small town seems deserted but its inhabitants are still there. 

French front, February 27th, 1915. 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 237 

"In Berlin, of all places in the world ! Comic, isn't 
it?" he answers, smiling. 

"How do you like this sort of thing?" you inquire. 

"It isn't very pleasant," he answers ; "but it's all for 
the country, so I don't mind." 

Into the trenches at last. There is no rifle-firing 
near you, nor indeed within hearing. In this particular, 
the experience is totally unlike that enjoyed in the Ger- 
man trenches several weeks before, for at that time 
and place, the firing was almost continuous and, from 
the French side, exceedingly rapid. But: 

"Bang! Smash !" comes a burst of sound. You pay 
no attention, for you have heard it three or four times 
before in the last ten minutes, and think these explo- 
sions the firing of the guns of the French light bat- 
teries which, you idly conjecture, are located close be- 
hind you in the rear of the trenches. Not until later 
are you undeceived. 

Finally you come to a trench typical of all the others 
you see this day. A marvelously comfortable fight- 
ing workshop it is, and safe, too. It is unusually deep 
and, from the bottom, a soldier standing erect can come 
to no harm by a bullet fired from the opposing trench. 
A firing bench, or standing place, solidly constructed 
of boards next to the wall facing the enemy, enables 
one to look and shoot through the firing apertures 
which are quite numerous and arranged at regular 
intervals. 

Upon this bench stands a line of soldiers, each with 
rifle in hand. They come to attention, and salute as 
the company of officers passes by. A sturdy, healthful, 
well-nourished lot of men they are, and very grim of 



238 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

feature. These particular soldiers you learn are Bre- 
tons. This company is what the French call "terri- 
torials" and the Germans would call "Landwehr" — 
that is, men over twenty-nine years of age. There is 
little light, for the trench is protected overhead by a 
bomb-proof roof made of railway ties covered with 
earth. It seems absurdly secure, but : 

"Please do not look for too long a time through 
that opening," requests the major in command, "and 
be careful not to look through the same opening im- 
mediately after some one else has done so. You 
would not think it," he explains, "but they can see that 
there is movement; the shutting of this shooting space 
means that some one is looking through it. It is sur- 
prising how quickly a bullet sometimes comes. That 
is the way most of our men in the trenches are wounded 
— in the face, head, or arms — and I fancy it is the 
same with the Germans." 

In another trench, exactly like the first, many of the 
rifles are resting on the lower board of the shooting 
slits, through which their muzzles protrude, ready for 
instant use. You observe that the soldiers here have 
more genial countenances, and that a more kindly look 
shines from their eyes than was the case with the Bre- 
ton territorials. Twice you get a faint smile in re- 
sponse to a friendly greeting. The physical fitness of 
these men is also noticeable. Indeed, this may be said 
of most of the French troops personally studied at the 
front. 

"Will you see my living quarters?" inquires a young 
captain. You will, of course. 

The neatness of this officer attracts your attention, 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 239 

as you follow him down several steps and come into a 
good-sized room many feet under ground. The ar- 
rangement of this room corresponds to the smartness 
of the young captain's personal appearance. It is a 
very large room, at least twelve by fifteen feet, with 
a ceiling not less than ten feet from the floor, A com- 
fortable and commodious iron bed, with mattress, 
sheets and blankets, stands in one corner, as well made 
up as the beds in most hotels. In another corner, to 
the right of the entrance, is a desk, chair and the in- 
evitable telephone. 

On the left is a large mirror fixed on the wall above 
a dressing table. Razor, soap, brushes and the other 
ordinary articles of a man's toilet are laid out in per- 
fect order. Above the looking-glass is a black crucifix 
with an ivory image of the Holy Figure exquisitely 
carved. On a shelf fixed in the wall stands a bottle 
of eau de Cologne and other accessories of exaggerated 
elegance. The officers accompanying you observe your 
look of surprise, which you do not well conceal, and 
begin to joke the young captain. 

"It is his boudoir, you know," one of them explains 
to you. "Quite sumptuous, isn't it?" solemnly remarks 
a second — "for the trenches!" exclaims a third. All 
laugh, and the young captain laughs with them. He 
is a favorite, you find, not only with his brother offi- 
cers, but with the men he commands, for he has shown 
both courage and ability. 

So you make your rounds, which seem endless. 

And "Bang !" And again "Bang !" "Smash !" comes 
the sound you had heard before and thought the firing 
of near-by French guns. You notice it particularly 



240 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

when passing along an uncovered space from bomb- 
proof trench to bomb-proof trench. Within these lat- 
ter the sound is only a muffled thud, scarcely distin- 
guishable. But : 

"I must ask you to remain here for a moment," re- 
marks the major. And the party draws back into a 
chamber, or passageway, where there are no soldiers, 
and no spaces through which to look or shoot at the 
enemy's lines. It is covered securely by railroad ties 
and earth. Also, a thick door, fixed to the stout 
wooden uprights that frame the entrance, is shut when 
the last man is within. It is a bomb-proof retreat. 
Within it is pitch dark. You do not understand the 
procedure at all. 

"We might as well sit," remarks the major. Some 
one lights a candle and places it in a niche in the 
earthen wall. There is a bench, you discover, and 
every one sits. 

"We shan't have to wait long, I think," observes the 
major. "They are shelling us," he explains. 

"Shelling us!" you exclaim. "They can't be shoot- 
ing very well, then, for I have heard no explosions!" 

"There have been plenty of them, and will be more 
and they are shooting very well indeed, too. They 
have been following us from trench to trench. There 
goes one now," he remarks. 

"Yes, and I think it will be safe now for a minute 
or two, for us to go to the next protected trench," 
says the major. "But let us make sure." And he or- 
ders a soldier to open the door and see what damage 
the last shell has done. 

In a moment, the grinning young private returns 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 241 

and reports no casualties, but says that the German 
shell exploded on the edge of the trench, and brings a 
fragment of it, and one of the missiles with which it 
was filled, which the major courteously gives you as 
souvenirs. 

And so you learn that what you had supposed to be 
the sound of the near-by French guns, was in reality 
the explosion of German shells aimed at this particular 
party of officers, and following them from trench to 
trench. One officer has counted them — there were 
twenty-nine in all. It is explained that this seemingly 
impossible phenomenon probably occurred in the fol- 
lowing way : 

When the six automobiles were seen from the Ger- 
man position descending the hill, where the French 
batteries had been working so swiftly, a German aero- 
plane, equipped with wireless apparatus, had been sent 
up to note and report the party's progress and destina- 
tion. This aerial observer, it was surmised, had sent 
a wireless message that a party of officers and three 
civilians had left these automobiles at a certain point, 
disappeared in the long approaching trench, reappeared 
in the village street, and entered the fighting trenches. 

To the Germans, this probably had meant that the 
officers were a French general and his staff, and the 
civilians important French functionaries, perhaps the 
Minister of War, who frequently makes such ex- 
cursions, or the President of the Republic. Had the 
Germans known that it was only an innocuous neutral 
observer, his secretary and an agent from the Foreign 
Office, they would not of course have wasted a grain 
of powder on us. But it would never do to permit so 



242 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

distinguished a party, as it might well have been, to 
depart without paying their military compliments. No 
indeed! So "Bang!" "Smash!" and scurrying into 
bomb proof and running in open trench. 

And thus chanced the good luck of being the object 
of twenty-nine well directed German shells ! 

"It would be amusing," remarks a genial French 
officer, "if those directing that fire were some of the 
friends you made at the German front ! What a joke 
if that were so, and you ever get to tell them about 
it!" And he laughed pleasantly. You laugh also, but 
say that you do not think it likely, for it was an- 
other part of the western German front you visited. 

"1 am sorry to trouble you, but we shall have to run 
through these uncovered trenches. And bend over, 
please. It won't do to stand still for a minute, nor 
show your head for an instant." 

Thus advises the commanding officer. And run you 
do, and hard running it is, the major leading the way; 
not in the speed you make, though you achieve good 
progress, but in the difficulty of going rapidly while 
bending forward through narrow winding trenches 
with uneven floors. 

No incident is without humor, and here fun runs 
before you. The officer immediately preceding you 
is a very large man and much heavier even than his 
great height requires. Also, he still wears his thick 
winter military overcoat. He is quite winded when 
half of a mile has been traveled, and at the end of a 
long run, is perspiring like a longshoreman at heavy 
labor in August. 

"Phew!" he says, "I had rather fight!" The scion, 



ESPECIALLY SHELLED 243 

this, of an ancient house, whose good humor, stohd 
courage and lack of pretense have made him beloved 
in spite of his rank. 

"Oh, yes ! is no good for a charge ! But put 

him in command of a position, and he will take a com- 
fortable chair and cheerfully get himself shot to death. 
His courage is of the staying kind, rather than of the 
dashing kind. I am quite sure that it never would 

occur to to retreat. He is bravery itself but 

he is not built for charging." 

Thus your attention is brought to another fact worth 

noting. This sturdy soldier was spoken of as , 

his patronymic. He was spoken of, too, as captain. 
His title was utterly ignored. A duke, count, prince, 
baron, marquis, or any other like title, does not 
exist for the French soldier or officer. There are plenty 
pf these in France, and of the most ancient blood. But 
the French soldier declines to recognize the fact, and 
to their infinite credit, it must be said that these high- 
born ones with inherited titles, decidedly respect them 
that they do not. 



X 

FIL^NCE IN ARMS * 

THE most notable result of the war in France is 
one of the finest human circumstances which 
the war has developed in any country. The revealing 
light of this world-changing conflict has discovered a 
strong, quiet, serious France, earnest and elevated in 
character. There has been a new birth of idealism; 
certainly this is true among the intellectual classes, and 
in the higher social circles. 

The French man and woman, from these sections of 
the French people, declare that this moral and spir- 
itual phenomenon so conspicuous and undeniable even 
to the casual observ-er is nothing new or strange ; they 
assert, on the contrary, that this French attitude of 
mind and soul, its eyes fixed upon the stars instead of 
upon the gutter, is the old, the real and the true 
French spirit which has been there all the time though 
unnoted by an idle world bent on gaiety. 

"Paris and all France," said one of the old Fau- 
bourg nobility, a traveled gentleman of serious pur- 
pose, totally unlike a peculiar t)'pe which has been held 
up to us Americans as representative of this ancient 
class ; "Paris and all France," said he, "is like a noble 



♦Written aboard ship, March 21, 1915. 

244 



FRANCE IN ARMS 245 

old house of granite, with simple beautiful lines, its 
foundations fixed in rock. Here and there it had been 
defaced by stucco. The idle passer-by saw only this 
grotesque exterior, and judged the house accordingly. 
At the shock of war, this has fallen away, and there 
stands the real Paris and the real France, solid, sim- 
ple, beautiful and enduring." 

Said another of the same station in life: "We are 
like Kipling's ship that found itself; there have been 
many complaining and contending voices among the 
timbers of our new France; but now that the storm 
is on us, we find that the period of friction is over, 
harmony prevails and the nation rides the waves with 
an unity of purpose which has surprised even ourselves. 
In short, France has found herself." 

Such are typical French interpretations of present- 
day France and its capital. Whether accurate or not, 
the future alone will disclose. But it is the calm esti- 
mate of the best thought, and the firm conviction of 
the highest character among the French people. It is 
felt even by the cautious observer trying to hold a 
steady balance of just proportion, that one statement 
at least may be ventured with confidence : The Ameri- 
can visitor to or resident of the French capital never 
again will see the Paris to which some were accus- 
tomed. Vanity and show, surface and neurotic de- 
lights, ennui and overfashion, have passed away. The 
intellectual pessimist, the blase in life and character, 
that tinsled gaiety in conduct which the sated mistook 
for pleasure — all these have gone. 

None of these things is in vogue any more in 
Paris. The serious, the thoughtful, the idealistic, 



246 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

even the religious make up the moral, spiritual and 
intellectual atmosphere of this transformed city. A 
new spirit of industry, too, is in the air, or rather in- 
dustry in a new guise — industry in the sense that 
everybody has something to do, everybody is doing 
that something; and that something is noble, pure, un- 
spotted of gain. Also everybody is finding that the joy 
of unselfish doing is sweet and wholesome. To put it 
in terms which some American frequenters of Paris 
will better understand, let us say that the smart, the 
flippant, the irreverent, the idle, are no longer fash- 
ionable. 

In this soul-testing hour, little or no excitement and 
bluster is to be seen or heard. Instead, there is a quiet 
stern resolve. At least one may say, to keep far within 
the limits of the truth, that this certainly is true of the 
intellectual classes and scholarly circles. 

*'Our feelings are so deep that we can find no words 
to express them," said Monsieur Bergson, the noted 
philosopher and leader of the new school of French 
thought. "Our emotion and our purpose," said he, 
"can manifest themselves only by a great calmness, 
which almost may be said to be exaltation." 

All this was visual to the visitor in Paris toward the 
end of the winter of 1915. For Paris was a place of 
sadness and mourning, but also of heroism and resolve. 
Her streets were deserted of young men, as indeed is 
true of every town and city of France, and of her 
fields and vineyards also. They are all at the front, 
or in reserve depots, waiting for the order to launch 
themselves into the conflict. 

"Yes," said a highly informed and moderate-minded 



FRANCE IN ARMS 247 

young woman of one of the best families of France, 
"Paris is deserted, and we are proud of it. We would 
not have our men stop behind — not one of them. 
Where would they be, if not at the front?" 

And Paris does seem deserted to one who knew the 
Paris of old, with its crowded streets, its overflowing 
cafes, the whirling activity of its thoroughfares. There 
are many people about, to be sure, and sometimes the 
grands boulevards seem well filled. But the Parisian 
visitor of a year ago would hardly recognize the French 
capital of to-day, so great is the disparity between the 
teeming life of the place then and its comparative 
meagerness now. Also, the atmosphere of gloom is 
instantly felt by one newly arrived in Paris, although 
the sensation wears off after a week or two under the 
anaesthetic of time and custom. 

This feeling of depression which falls upon the vis- 
iting observer is deepened by the darkened streets at 
night; for while there is light enough to make one's 
way about the central and more frequented thorough- 
fares, yet the city as a whole is very somber after sun- 
set. An American thoroughly familiar with his Paris 
found great difficulty in making his way on foot from a 
residential quarter to the hotel section. No blazing arc 
lamps longer flare, and the system of electric lighting 
which was wont to make the Paris nights so brilliant 
awaits the issue of war to resume its illuminating work. 

Then, too, the hospitals. Hospitals ! Hospitals ! To 
one unaccustomed to such scenes and familiar with the 
Paris of old, everywhere there appears to be these ref- 
uges of the stricken. Along the Champs Elysees, 
well-known and palatial hotels are now the abodes of 



248 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

wounded men, and uniformed nurses have taken the 
place of the hotel attendants. Private houses facing 
this world-famed thoroughfare are now also devoted 
to the housing of the injured. 

This, indeed, is true all over the city. Calling upon 
a gentleman of great wealth living in one of the most 
extensive and luxurious houses of Paris, one found 
one's self among the odors of disinfectants, and the 
women members of the family arrayed in the costume 
of nurses. On side streets, too, the sign of the Red 
Cross or other symbols advertise these stations of 
succor. 

As you are starting for England, March, 1915, 
comes the order from General Joffre himself to pre- 
pare one hundred and fifty thousand additional hos- 
pital beds against the need which the spring campaign, 
so shortly to begin, will bring in its sanguinary wake. 
This in Paris alone, where also the boys' schools have 
been taken over to serve as hospitals ! Such is the grim 
prospect the French people consciously and bravely 
face ! 

"Is this really gloom that I seem to feel in Paris, or 
am I merely depressed without real justification?" you 
ask an American woman, wife of an old-time American 
friend, as you sit at luncheon with a company of Amer- 
ican acquaintances. 

"Yes, it is gloom," she answers; "we feel it our- 
selves, and no wonder. France is suffering so much, 
fighting so hard, and the Germans are not so very far 
away. The men are all out there fighting, or waiting 
to fight. I wish I could fight with them — I do, indeed ! 
I should like to take a gun and shoot a German!" 



FRANCE IN ARMS 249 

And the Germans are not so very far away — an 
hour and a half swift automibile drive would bring 
one into the German lines. Also, the words of this 
American woman reveal a circumstance which you 
are to note again, in London as well as in Paris : the 
American woman is far more violent in her feelings 
than are the women of the warring countries — cer- 
tainly more violent in the expression of them. It 
would appear that an American, when inoculated with 
the sentiment of a country where he or she resides, 
shows that sentiment in intense fashion. 

But while Paris is depressed it can not be said that 
the feeling is caused by despair; the gloom does not 
seem to be the child of hopelessness. On the contrary, 
the French firmly believe that the Allies will win, and 
the grounds for this faith we shall examine presently. 
But France has lost much blood ; she is losing more all 
the time, and she knows that soon, very soon, the life 
current is to issue from eveiy pore; and France has 
no blood to lose. It will take her a long time to supply 
the crimson strength already poured out so prodigally 
and with such abandoned valor. 

It will take a long, long time — generations — to re- 
place the men who must fall before this war ends ; a 
fact so well understood in France, and especially by 
French women, that one of the reconstructive results 
of this war already apparent is the purpose and resolve 
now openly stated by representative women of the 
highest class, especially among the old aristocracy of 
whom America never hears, that the French family 
should and will be very much larger in the future than 
it has been in the past. 



250 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

The melancholy feeling flows from the carnage al- 
ready wrought and the greater havoc which they know 
must come. Even more it flows from their constant 
knowledge that the enemy is on French soil, that the 
war in the west is being waged in France itself, and 
the very richest part of France at that. 

But the French have no doubt that they will win — 
or rather, that the Allies will be victorious. For they 
frankly admit, and the admission is infinitely to their 
credit, that, standing alone, they could not prevail 
against their mighty eastern neighbor. They even con- 
cede that Germany might possibly overcome France 
and Russia put together. But they contend that with 
England added Germany has no chance against these 
three greatest powers of Europe combined. 

And the French are ready to do their part in this 
gigantic partnership of war. 

They already have done far more than their just 
share. Not in the most glorious days of the great Na- 
poleon did the sons of France pour out their blood with 
greater prodigality than their descendants have done 
up to the present hour of this mighty conflict. And 
they do not begrudge it ; they are willing to give still 
more. 

"To the last man!" exclaimed one of the first intel- 
lects of France. 

For they are obsessed of the conviction that defeat 
means the extinction of France — its physical extinc- 
tion. They really believe that France will disappear 
from the map of Europe if Germany wins. It has be- 
come an idee fixe. 



FRy\NCE IN ARMS 251 

The roots of this conception of German pur- 
poses and policy run back to the fateful year of 
1870, and are fixed in the soil of vVlsace and Lorraine. 
The French never have forgotten the taking of these 
two provinces. In latter years they imagined they had 
forgiven it ; but the war revived the sleeping rancor ; 
the doctrine of revanche, preached for so many long 
years, though latterly abandoned, left its seed of drag- 
on's teeth in the French heart ; and — so runs the French 
thought — if Germany wrongfully took Alsace and Lor- 
raine by force when she won then, what will she not 
wrongfully take by force if she wins now? Certainly 
Flanders, Artois, Champagne and Picardy, the richest 
portion of France, and that part of the coast of Nor- 
mandy upon the Channel, down to and including the 
harbor of Le Havre. 

This is the very least which the French believe Ger- 
many would exact from them, if victorious. Amazing 
as it may seem to Americans, and surprised as the 
Germans will be to learn it, it nevertheless is true that 
there are those in France who think that Germany 
would take the whole country if she could, yes, even 
to the Pyrenees. 

And they are perfectly sure that Germany is out gun- 
ning for French colonies ; and these, veiy rich, very 
profitable and very well administered, are very dear to 
the French heart no less than to the French pocketbook. 
Just how this French way of thinking developed will 
be an engaging theme for the historian. Certainly the 
French think that the Morocco affair and the Agadir 
incident sustain their opinion. What they describe as 



252 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Germany's pounding on the table with a sword" got 
sadly on their nerves ; for they are a highly sensitive 
people. 

Then, too, the more thoughtful believed that France 
was already being "Germanized." 

"German working men have steadily been taking the 
place of French laborers, here in France, here in Paris," 
said one of the most dependable of this class. "Ger- 
man business men were rooting out French business 
men. The Germans were even buying up our land. 
This has been going on all over France," he continued, 
"and with them, these multitudes of Germans brought 
their industrial methods, their ideals of life, their so- 
called 'Kultur.' It is a fact that if this had.gone on it 
would not have been a great many years until they 
would have taken France." 

Careful inquiry was made as to the accuracy of this 
statement about German industrial and business suc- 
cess in France. It was confirmed by those questioned 
concerning it. "It is quite true," said an American, a 
friend of thirty years' standing, who is one of the best 
informed men in the country, and whose conservative 
reliability and cautious understatement is his principal 
characteristic; "it is quite true," he testified. "For 
example, many of the largest dressmaking establish- 
ments, which most American women suppose to be 
French, are in reality owned by Germans." 

A foreign business man, manager of a large plant in 
a certain part of the republic, testified that the Ger- 
mans were taking France in an industrial and a busi- 
ness way. Asked as to how this was possible, he ex- 
plained, from his own experience, the infinite pains the 



FRANCE IN ARMS 253 

Germans took to supply just what their customers 
desired, their patient labor and prudent foresight. 

When asked why Germany should resort to war to 
obtain what she was already getting by peaceful meth- 
ods, the answers of French men and women were that 
it is the German habit of mind to take physically and 
by force the thing desired; or that a successful war 
would give Germany governmental control as well as 
physical possession of very rich and contiguous terri- 
tory, and also more soldiers for her army; or that it 
was Germany's desire to get coveted ports on the 
Channel; or that it was the love of conquest for its 
own sake; or that it was the "insane ambition" of the 
Emperor to rule; or that it was the working out of the 
supposed German plan to dominate the world ; or that 
it was a part of Germany's resolve to be the first, the 
leading, the compelling power of Europe, "the auto- 
crat of Europe," etc. 

As to why France is in the war, most will tell you 
that it is because she was invaded. But not all give 
this as the primary cause; indeed most, after the fron- 
tiers of conversation have been passed, concede that 
France would have entered the conflict for deeper rea- 
sons, even though she had not been invaded. 

It was admitted that her alliance with Russia would 
have forced her to take up arms to aid her ally, as a 
matter of national honor. Stronger even than this was 
the statesman's view that France had to fight to save 
the principle of the equilibrium of Europe, the balance 
of power, which Germany's growing strength already 
threatened, and which her victory over Russia would 
have overthrown. 



254 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Running parallel with this and with equal or greater 
influence in the French mind was the feeling, yes, even 
the deliberately thought-out conclusion, that if Russia 
was unsupported, Germany would defeat Russia, and 
then attack and conquer France next, and after that un- 
dertake the conquest of England. "It would have been 
our turn next," was the common expression; and "it 
would have been our turn next," was what you heard 
said in England. 

The belief entertained by some Germans that 
France's enormous investments in Russia, which would 
be imperiled if not lost in case of Russian defeat, was a 
deciding factor in determining France to engage in the 
struggle, is hotly denied by every Frenchman, and, to 
the careful observer, seems unjustified. Some Germans 
estimated that the French have invested more than 
20,000,000.000 of francs ($4,000,000,000) in various 
ways in Russia ; painstaking inquiry in France inclines 
one to the opinion that this is at least 5,000,000,000 
($1,000,000,000) too high. 

The best informed financial men in France who are 
not French citizens or of French blood, place the maxi- 
mum of French investments of every kind in Russia 
at 15,000,000,000 of francs ($3,000,000,000); but it 
seems reasonably certain that, no matter what the 
amount, France was not drawn into the war by the 
fear of losing her Russian investments, nor even influ- 
enced by that consideration. 

Just as the Germans believe they are fighting for 
their lives, for their very existence as a nation, which 
they think the Allies under the leadership and direction 
of Great Britain are trying to crush, so the French be- 



FRANCE IN ARMS 255 

lieve that they are fighting for their hves and their ex- 
istence as a nation, which they consider Germany is 
trying to crush. Especially is this true of the higher 
classes and the intellectual circles. 

Whether this thought and feeling that French na- 
tionality will be extinguished, French culture and ideals 
smothered, and the French country physically seized 
and occupied in case of German victory, which so sat- 
urates the mind and heart of intellectual France, ex- 
tends downward to the grass-roots, and is entertained 
to the same extent by the mass of the common people, 
is not certain. Nor is it for the present moment ma- 
terial. 

One thing, however, may be said for sure of the 
French masses : They know that the enemy is on 
French soil, and they are resolved to drive him out of 
French territory and take back the lost provinces. 
Whatever the reasons which brought France to take 
part in Armageddon, the present feeling among all 
French men and women is one of heroic resolve that 
counts no cost too high, no sacrifice too great. This 
resolve is noble, inspiring, beautiful and even touch- 
ing in its spirit of self-sacrifice and high purposes. 
There is something almost of religion in the exaltation 
of sentiment, especially among the higher classes, who 
mean to go and will go to the very end, to the very 
last centime, to the very last drop of blood — literally 
that, not figuratively, but literally. 

And the end, to these upper classes, is not merely 
the expulsion of the Germans from France; to them 
the driving out of the invader is only the beginning. 
It is not even the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine; 



256 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"That goes without saying" or "That is not to be dis- 
cussed — Alsace and Lorraine, of course." Their pur- 
pose is to annihilate the military power of Germany : 
"To destroy military Germanism, root and branch," 
as one French statesman put it with flashing eyes, "We 
are going to make another war on France impossible ; 
we are willing to die now, ourselves, rather than that 
our children should have to go through the furnace." 

Just how they will break the German sword and 
make the German hand powerless to grasp and the 
German arm nerveless to wield it, is not clear. The 
bitterness toward the German Imperial Government 
affords a hint. 

Also this class dreams of the re-arrangement of all 
Europe. To this end they are making maps in 
France — redrawing the existing boundaries of nations. 
Their quick and logical imagination has leaped to a 
new and, as they think, more natural adjustment of 
peoples. Germany is to be dismembered, or at least 
shorn of what the French think is not hers and confined 
within what the French contend to be her rightful lim- 
its — and even then something more is to be done with 
her; Austria is to be torn all to pieces and distributed 
according to race; Poland is to be made a kingdom 
with the Russian Czar on her throne ; Turkey is to be 
divided among the Allies and so forth and so on. It 
is the same map you find later which has been drawn 
in England, where mapmaking is a favorite pastime. 

That all this may mean a very long war does not 
matter in the opinion of the best realms of French 
thought. Not that they believe that the war will con- 
tinue for any extended period — for they are convinced 



FRANCE IN ARMS 257 

that the Alhes will overwhelm Germany within a few 
months;* but they are willing to prolong the war in- 
definitely to accomplish the far purposes they now 
have in mind. 

But the views of the common people on this point 
are not so clear. "The peasants know only that France 
is invaded," remarked an uncommonly intelligent 
French business man, "and they want to put the Ger- 
mans out of France. Of course they want Alsace and 
Lorraine back too, now they are at it. But further than 
this, I can not say." 

A business man, not of French birth or blood, but 
unusually w^ell informed concerning the French com- 
mon people, and especially what he terms "the money- 
making middle class," gave it as his opinion that these 
classes would not be hot for the continuance of the war 
once the Germans were back in their own country, and 
certainly not if Alsace and Lorraine were recovered. 

"I have heard members of the money-making, 
money-saving bourgeoisie say," he commented, "that 
the war is getting to be very long; that they wish it 
were over; that they are not doing any business — and 
so forth," And this particular man was very severe 
upon this "money-making middle class." "For," said 
he, "the Germans ought to be smashed and smashed 
forever." Asked whether he thought that any decided 
reverse would still further weaken this class, he an- 
swered with bitterness: "Yes, undoubtedly; they want 
to get to making money again." 

On the contrary, consider this statement of a French 
business man, conservative and reliable and belonging 

* Written March 21, 1915. 



258 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

to the upper reaches of "the money-making middle 
class." 

"Certainly we shall go on to the end ! Will the re- 
tirement of the Germans from France satisfy us? No, 
indeed; and they will not retire — we shall put 
them out. Will we be content with Alsace and Lor- 
raine ? Certainly not ! They are ours, anyhow. I am 
an Alsatian, you know. What will satisfy us? Crush- 
ing Germany so that she never can make war on us or 
anybody else again ! How far am I willing to go my- 
self? My two sons are at the front. They may be 
killed ; they probably will be killed. I am prepared to 
give them gladly to destroy the menace of Germany. 
If I had more I should give more!" 

No one could doubt the deep earnestness of this man, 
an old acquaintance of stainless character and moder- 
ate cautious mind. He had been a soldier him- 
self in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and had 
left his beloved Alsace rather than live under the rule 
of the conqueror. 

And here is the comment of a woman who kept a 
bookstall in Paris and has two sons in the army : "We 
have been living in terror all the time — the terror of 
war. We can't stand it any longer. We've got to get rid 
of it forever. We had rather die than go on living as 
we have for the last forty years. We have been under 
the menace of Germany all that time. I hate war, all 
war. I want this war to go on until there can be no 
more wars. How far am I willing to go? I have 
given my sons !" 

Two old French maiden ladies, sisters, sixty years 
of age and over, living in their cold and cheerless 



FRANCE IN ARMS 259 

apartment four flights above the street, in the Latin 
quarter : "We would do anything," said they, "sacri- 
fice anything, to get rid of the menace of the Germans ! 
We would work, starve, fight, anything if necessary." 
They were greatly excited. But just what "getting rid 
of the German menace" meant to these aged people was 
not explained. Whether they would be satisfied with 
freeing France of the invader and recovering Alsace 
and Lorraine was not ascertained. 

As to the intellectual classes, the higher business cir- 
cles and especially the ancient aristocracy, however, 
there can be no manner of doubt. The calm purpose of 
these classes to prosecute the war to such a point that 
France never again will be disturbed is clear and cer- 
tain. And to these classes this m«ans the shattering 
of present-day Germany. 

Across the beauty of their resolve, however, has 
been shot a dark and unlovely circumstance. Cartoons, 
and by noted artists, represent the German soldiers as 
creatures of infinite cruelty, shameful cowardice, bes- 
tial lustfulness. For example, one of these pictures, 
so well done that it is a work of art, portrays a beauti- 
ful woman perfectly nude ; she is being thrust forward, 
screaming and throwing her arms in despair above her, 
by a group of savage-looking German soldiers, who, 
using her as a shield, are firing from behind her ; and 
other German soldiers are seen crawling over the em- 
bankment above which she has been lifted. The title 
of this cartoon is "Their Shield." 

Another cartoon, done with similar art, shows a 
beautiful woman, also perfectly nude, lying on her side 
upon the floor, her arm thrown in terror before her 



260 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

eyes, and over her half crouching, in brutal loathsome- 
ness, a German soldier, with arms extended toward 
her, the greedy hands arranged like talons, two teeth 
showing between the thick, curled-back lips of infamy, 
the face stamped with remorseless lust. 

Still another portrays three or four German officers, 
their faces bloated to rotundity, their eyes protruding 
like frogs, their faces unintelligent and animal, taunt- 
ing a lovely, almost an ethereal woman whom they had 
stripped of every particle of clothing and had chained 
or tied to a bar. The officers are maudlin with drink. 
Again, another similar cartoon shows two young Ger- 
man cavalrymen, their horses laden with plunder, with 
little children tied with ropes and dragged behind, the 
German soldiers on horseback riding along in great 
glee over their booty and their captives. 

Yet another of these numerous cartoons is particu- 
larly revolting — it shows a wounded German soldier 
lying on his back in bed; a kindly-faced, uniformed 
French army surgeon is dressing the hurt in his foot. 
The injured soldier's face, full of hate, is turned to- 
ward the French military Samaritan ; it is a criminal's 
face, with heavy jowls, protruding chin, close-cropped 
hair and low forehead; the coarse fingers of the thick 
hand grasp a murderous knife — he is about to strike 
the kind-hearted French surgeon who is affording him 
succor. 

The above are only examples of many such present- 
ments of the German soldier whom each of these pic- 
tures portrays as a type of the German army and in- 
deed of the German people. The effect of these rep- 
resentations of the German soldier and the German 



FRANCE IN ARMS 261 

people was nothing short of ghastly to the American 
newly arrived from Germany, where his study of the 
faces, manner and conduct of common soldier and 
officer, and of the German people, gave no such idea as 
that pictured in these cartoons. 

Yet it is certain that these pictures and the swarm of 
monstrous stories that cluster around them have had 
great effect upon French sentiment. The grave error 
of them is that they brand a whole people with infamy. 
Every well-wisher of France must regret this : even for 
the purposes of the present hour. For no sustained con- 
flict can be waged upon mistaken hatred against an en- 
tire nation ; and, if it should turn out that personal con- 
tact negatives the ground of that hate, there is danger 
that there might be a letting down in such animosity- 
inspired energy. 

To the lover of humanity who, looking far ahead, 
sees the end of the war and realizes that these peoples 
in the coming years must live together as neighbors, 
the thought is terrible and full of dread of the genera- 
tions of bitterness which the feelings thus aroused must 
bequeath to the future. 

There are soldiers in the trenches who, it would seem, 
reflect little of this spirit. Their letters are full of 
courage and kindness. Here is an extract from one 
written by a French soldier to his wife the day after 
Christmas : 

"In the Trenches, December 26, 1914. 
"My Dearest — It's something new for me to cele- 
brate Christmas in the trenches, and especially so to 
celebrate it with the enemy. Think of it ! We crawled 
out of our holes and they did the same, and by signs 



262 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

and grimaces wished each other a happy Christmas, 
and exchanged chocolates and cigarettes. Yes, they are 
men hke ourselves, and we must all obey, and each one 
fight to defend his country. It's hard to think that 
to-morrow we will be at it again and may be killing 
each other. My heart was heavy when I read in your 
letter last night that you were not going to buy any- 
thing for the children at Christmas. Why do you do 
this? You should have bought them something use- 
ful — at least some little thing for Christmas. I am 
glad mother is well. If only you could get news from 
Auguste! I am afraid the worst has happened. Try 
to keep it from mother, but prepare her for it. To all, 
thanks for the packages and also for my sleeping bag. 
All the civilians around here have been expelled on 
account of the treacherous things they have done. 
Now we have received orders to take anything we need 
from the houses of these people. We have even taken 
furniture to make our fires. It is dreadful. Kiss the 
dear children for me and tell them always to be good. 
To you, my dearest, he who loves you embraces you 
tenderly." 

Here is another from a French soldier to his parents : 

"January 5, 1915. 
"My Very Dear Parents — It is raining again and 
the mud is awful and makes it difficult to circulate in 
the trenches, fields, and especially the woods. But, in 
spite of this, the general condition of our troops is 
good. Few cases of sickness, and we are always in 
good spirits. New Year's eve we had a little extra — 
two quarts of wine, apples, oranges, nuts and tobacco. 
Also, a little champagne. Oh, no quantity of anything! 



FRANCE IN ARMS 263 

For by the time all these good things reach the poor 
trooper there is not much left ! For instance, we had 
three cigars for five of us, so that the two who had no 
cigars did the spitting and tried to imagine they were 
smoking. We were all quite happy, seated on some 
straw, singing and reciting. At Christmas we also, 
each of us, got a package of tobacco as a present from 
the children of France, with a special label. 

"Christmas eve we also stopped fighting, and we all 
assembled, French and German, without arms, on the 
ground between the trenches. By mutual consent we 
buried our dead. Then we exchanged wine and cigar- 
ettes. Then we all sang together, and at last went back 
to our trenches. I forgot to say that these Germans 
were Bavarians. They are different from the Prus- 
sians. They also seem tired of this war of the trenches, 
which is tiresome and demoralizing. It's very difficult 
for either side to advance. The first line of trenches 
are about 100 meters apart. We have few wounded. 
Most of the time both sides fire in the air, just to 
scare each other a little." . . . 

The following from a French soldier to his mother, 
full of endearing tenderness, describing the hardship 
of the trenches, "with water up to our shoulders," as- 
sures her that 

"Your letters always do me good and give me fresh 
courage, which I need, for the time passes so slowly. 
Fortunately there are others more courageous than I 
and who keep up the spirits of the rest. Mon Dicu, 
what a struggle ! And for a result which will probably 
not be very brilliant. But we will fight to the very 
end. ... I leave you to go to sleep in my cave, at 



264 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

least protected against those devilish bullets. When 
will their awful whistling stop?" 

Here is a battle picture, written to his aunt, by a 
wounded French soldier in the hospital : 

'T was wounded the 22nd in Belgium. One ball went 
through my right wrist, and a piece of shell struck my 
left hand, I was also hit in two other places. So I cer- 
tainly got my full dose, and don't want another. We 
arrived in a little village in Belgium at 10 o'clock in 
the morning where we thought we could spend the day 
quietly. All of a sudden the bullets began to whistle. 
We searched the houses but at last found the enemy 
hidden in trenches about 200 metres from us. They 
were six times as many as we. The battle lasted from 
11 till 5, the bullets fell like rain. We had to retreat 
taking our wounded with us for over four kilometres, 
and the Germans were some times only fifty metres be- 
hind us. You can imagine, dear Aunt, how the bul- 
lets whistled. My comrades fell to right and left of 
me. I, wounded as I was, kept saying to myself, 'it's 
your turn next,' but the good God had a little pity and 
I managed to escape, etc." 

Just one more of these letters telling of trench war- 
fare — this from a French soldier to his wife: 

"September 13, 1914. 

"In the Trenches 5 I. 

"Still in the trenches. If we were exposed like this 
in time of peace we would certainly all be dead. Many 
fellows are killed through their imprudence. They 
want to see what's going on and of course the enemy 



FRANCE IN ARMS 265 

shoots. That is the reason so many are found dead 
with wounds in their heads. Well this war can't last 
forever. The women must not lose their courage, we 
won't all be killed, and those of us who do return will 
be better men than we have ever been, that I promise 
you." 

All French men and women personally conversed with 
are absolutely certain that the Allied Powers will be 
overwhelmingly victorious and that the Germans will 
be hopelessly and irretrievably beaten. The grounds 
for this belief are substantial, material, and, to the eye 
of purely practical calculation, weighty. 

First of all, as has been suggested, France's belief 
that Germany will be defeated is not based alone or 
even chiefly on French resources, French valor or 
French spirit, although she has displayed and is show- 
ing an over-abundance of all these. French courage and 
French steadfastness have won for France anew the 
admiration of the world and the ungrudging applause 
of her enemy in arms. 

It is impossible to say too much in praise of French 
fortitude and spirit. But the combination of Allies is, 
the French think, a massing of power against which 
Germany can not possibly prevail and under the blows 
of which Germany will be crushed as certainly as a 
hollow globe of glass would be ground to powder un- 
der the impact of a monstrous triphammer. 

Germany, they say, already has two frontiers to de- 
fend, and before long she may have three. Germany 
must keep half her army in the east to resist the Rus- 
sians, half of it in the west to oppose the French and 
English; and at the same time Gennany must make 



266 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

shift to send hundreds of thousands of soldiers to 
Austria. Worst of all, argue the French, Germany 
must equip with seasoned officers the Turkish troops 
and fortifications, and sprinkle a goodly number of 
officers among the Austrians. Moreover, the British 
fleet is in absolute command of every water approach 
to Germany from the north, and the French fleet per- 
forms a like service upon the Mediterranean. In short, 
the French contend that not only is Germany sur- 
rounded, but by forces that are irresistible in numbers, 
and in wealth. 

Here is a characteristic summary of this reasoning 
afforded by a careful French authority: 

Resources 

Germans and Austrians Allies 

Men: Twelve to fifteen mil- Twenty to twenty-five mil- 
lion, lion. 

Money: German bank notes French bank notes gaining on 

losing on exchange. exchange. 

JFar Materials: Blockaded. Inexhaustible. 

Foodstuffs; Blockaded. Inexhaustible. 

Undoubtedly France is counting heavily upon enor- 
mous reinforcements of men from England. And she 
has earned the right to expect this aid ; for, at least up 
to the present time, March, 1915, the French have 
been doing by far the greatest part of the fighting 
in the western theater of the war — how much one 
can grasp in an instant by examining the battle 
line over four hundred miles long, every foot of 
which has been and is being held by the French except 



FRANCE IN ARMS 267 

a comparatively small space of thirty or thirty-five 

miles. 

Consider now the French strength, apart from that 
of the Allies. While no official or other dependable 
figures of French losses are to be had from any source, 
yet there is basis for an estimate which would seem to 
be reasonable. A French gentleman, who is believed 
to be entirely reliable, furnished the information that, 
up to February 1, 1915, the French returned to the 
Germans eight hundred and forty prisoners so badly 
wounded as to be incapacitated for any further service 
in the war; and in exchange for these the Germans 
returned to France sixteen hundred French prisoners 
in similar condition. From this data it would seem to 
be a fair inference that the French losses up to the end 
of January, 1915, were virtually twice as great as the 
German losses on the western front; and this, it is sur- 
mised, is informed French opinion. 

This French estimate does not take into account un- 
wounded French prisoners. Up to January 1, 1915, 
according to German railway statistics, Germany had 
taken prisoner two hundred and twenty thousand un- 
wounded French soldiers, who were then in numerous 
prison camps throughout German}- ; whereas the num- 
ber of unwounded German soldiers taken prisoner by 
the French must have been very small in comparison. 
For while no figures on this point were obtainable in 
France, the total number of soldiers, prisoners and 
missing, from the German side on January 1, 1915, 
amounted to only one hundred and fifty-three thousand 
men all told and on both fronts, according to German 
estimate. 



268 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

The only other basis from which French losses may 
be surmised is a French estimate that France needs 
one hundred thousand new men every month. As in 
the case with the German wounded, at least sixty per 
cent, of the French wounded recover sufficiently to re- 
turn to the front. 

To supply the men needed France has an astonishing 
store of soldier material. At the date of this writing, 
March, 1915, France has two million men on the battle 
line. Behind these, she has in waiting about one million 
eight hundred thousand more trained soldiers. These 
are gathered in military depots or camps located con- 
veniently near the front. There are two hundred and 
ten of these reservoirs of men for infantry alone. . 

In case of emergency there can be added to these 
nine hundred thousand additional men between the 
ages of thirty-nine and forty-five; to these could be 
added two hundred and fifty thousand men of the class 
of 1916 and the same number of the class of 1917; 
these would be youths of seventeen to eighteen years 
of age, respectively. 

France's financial resources would seem to be very 
large. The Bank of France reports a gold reserve of 
four billion francs; and that institution estimates 
that the people have in their stockings the same amount 
of gold. It would appear that this estimate is generous 
in view of the extremely heavy investments which the 
French people have made in Russia. The inability of 
South American countries to pay their vast obligations 
incurred on account of extensive French investments 
in that quarter caused a temporary disturbance in cer- 



FRANCE IN ARMS 269 

tain banking circles ; but it is not believed that this has 
produced serious embarrassment. 

Like all other warring countries, except Germany, 
France declared a moratorium at the outbreak of the 
war. From the very first, however, the banks paid 
two hundred and fifty dollars, plus five per cent, of the 
balance of the deposit. This proportion was gradually 
increased, and at the time of this writing, it is fifty per 
cent, of deposits; but from the beginning of the year 
the greater banks paid all deposits in full. Also, these 
larger financial institutions resumed the payment of 
dividends, which had been suspended from the outbreak 
of the war. These bigger and solider banks at first paid 
to their employees who were called to the colors, full 
salaries if married and half salaries if unmarried; but 
beginning with 1915 the salaries of their fighting mar- 
ried employees were reduced. The reason of this prob- 
ably was that the government pays the wives of soldiers 
one and twenty-five hundredths francs per day (twen- 
ty-five cents) and fifty centimes (10 cents) per day for 
each child. 

Business in France does not reflect the apparently 
excellent financial condition of the country. Conversa- 
tions with thoroughly informed and careful business 
men indicated that French business is for the time be- 
ing paralyzed. "It is badly shattered," said a sub- 
stantial French business man. *Tt is practically sus- 
pended," was the opinion of the expert of a great house 
whose duty it is to keep accurately posted on this vital 
subject. 

"Would you say that business generally is fifty per 



270 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

cent, normal?" was one question asked of a thoroughly 
informed French business man. 

"No ; nor anywhere near it." 

"Forty per cent.?" 

"No." 

"Twenty-five per cent. ?" 

"Hardly — perhaps." 

"You see," another informant explained, "most of 
our plants are practically idle because their forces are 
in the army, except, of course, those engaged in mak- 
ing war materials. Then, too, you must remember 
that the richest part of the countr}^ — our principal tex- 
tile district, our best mining district and among our 
largest metal works, our most fertile agricultural re- 
gion — is in the hands of the Germans." 

It was the estimate of these gentlemen that it will 
take from three to five years after the war ends to 
make French industiy normal again. The deteriora- 
tion of unused machinery, the difficulty of reorganiz- 
ing working staffs, the supposed destruction of plants, 
and the other effects of war upon industry, form the 
ground of this unhappy view of the future. 

All this does not in the least cool the ardor of 
French spirit nor soften the hardness of French deter- 
mination, so far as this could be judged by conversa- 
tions with those personally consulted. The only doubt 
upon this point was that already referred to, of re- 
ported indications of weariness of the war on the part 
of the bourgeoisie, and their eagerness to get to mak- 
ing money again. 

But personal investigation did not confirm this re- 
port. On the contrary all French men and women 



FRANCE IN ARMS 271 

personally talked to displayed a determination quite 
equal to that found in Germany, and much fiercer and 
more vivid in expression; yet this talk is not strident, 
loud, or boastful, but instead tense, quiet and desperate. 
It is reasonably safe to say that at the very least the 
French are an absolute unit in their resolve to drive the 
Germans from French territory, take back the lost 
provinces and secure, for France, a permanent peace, 
and that to these ends pauper and millionaire are as 
one man, ready to sacrifice fortune and life. 

Also, it should be said upon the issue of supporting 
the war, political parties have merged into one, al- 
though on other questions there still are, it was said, 
party divisions. In the early part of March, 1915, the 
government was attacked in the Chamber of Deputies 
because Paris was kept under martial law. Such nag- 
ging as this promises to be not infrequent; but it does 
not mean that there is any division in prosecuting the 
war. While the form of parliamentary government is 
observed, yet at bottom France, one was informed, is 
under a military dictatorship. "What Joffre says 
goes," was the statement of one of the most competent 
and dependable Americans whose home is in France. 
It appears that the commander-in-chief indicates what 
is necessary; the government takes measures accord- 
ingly; and parliament sustains the government. 

It is among the higher classes, however, that the 
French spirit burns brightest and with purest flame. 
Within the intellectual circles especially does this patri- 
otic fire blaze in its noblest radiance. It is quite im- 
possible to overstate the exalted ardor of these French 
men and women. If their heart and soul are those of 



272 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

the whole French people; if the hon bourgeois feels as 
deeply as the descendant of the old nobility; if in 
the peasant's mind there is the militant resolve which 
dwells in the mind of the French scholar; if the emo- 
tion of working man and tradesman is as deep and sim- 
ple as that of the French philosopher and thinker, then 
indeed is France embattled for a war to the uttermost. 
Certain it is that for the immediate object of expelling 
the invader from French soil, the valor of the rank 
and file of the French troops has written an immortal 
record. 



XI 

FRENCH THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR 1 

Statesmen, Scholar and Philosopher 

THE following conversations reflect French 
thought as it was at the beginning of the eighth 
month of the war. They present what may be called 
the statesmen's view as to the basic cause of the con- 
flict • and also what should be termed the popular opm- 
ion if the source of the struggle.* The same method 
was followed as in the talks with representatives of 

~^ic first of these opinions was that the maintenance of the 
balance of power in Europe was necessary to the self-respecting 
Sty, importance and even safety of the various continental 
naUoifs which are known to the world as first P^ers Tins 
declared French statesmen, was being disturbed by the growing 
strength of Germany united with what the French call her ag- 
gressiveness It was to maintain, said French statesmen this 
prina'ple that the English-French-Russian arrangement called the 

Triple Entente was made. , . ,, i • i „oc +Viat 

The popular view, held also by the mtellectual circles was that 
Germany had designs upon the territorial ^"tegnty of France 
Germany said these Frenchmen, who voiced tliis view had in 
tended for a long time to seize portions of French territory. 
What the French asserted to be Germany's arrogant and even 
mi iSnt bearing ever since the Franco-Prussian War, exci ed 
French imagination. "We have been living in apprehension or 
yeaJs," was a common expression of the feelmg of many thought- 

^'Ffen"h bdief seemed to be that if France had let Germany de- 
feat Russia, Germany then would have crushed France bo that 
while, of course, France's alliance with Russia bound i' ranee m 

273 



274 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

various classes in Germany and the same types of men 
were selected. 

Out of a number of conversations the following 
have been chosen as giving the current of French 
thought as it was expressed during the last week of 
February and the first week of March, 1915. Each 
of the conversations here narrated was written out and 
submitted to the gentleman interviewed, who very 
carefully verified the same, making such changes as 
he desired and authorized publication. 

A French Statesman's Exposition 

"The deep cause of the war is the effort to main- 
tain the equilibrium of Europe," said one of the most 
eminent statesmen of France, whose name I am not 
permitted to give, but whose word is weighty. "This 
is the principle that no one Power shall become so 
strong as to disturb the equilibrium of the Powers. 
In other words, that no one nation shall be the first, 
or dominating. Power. 

"I have seen this war coming for a great many 
years," he continued. "Germany was growing so 

honor to come to Russia's aid, the French idea of what the 
French believed to be their self-preservation was an equally com- 
pelling force driving France into battle. Publicist, scholar and 
thinker entertained these views as well as holding the additional 
opinion concerning the equilibrium of Europe, already mentioned. 
Back of both the statesmen's and the popular view and power- 
fully efifecting both was the French resentment for the taking of 
Alsace-Lorraine and the purpose, dormant in recent years but 
never dead, to recover those provinces. In the minds of the 
majority of the common people, especially the peasants, it seemed 
probable that this, together with the presence of the enemy on 
French soil, were the master thoughts which caused them to fly 
to arms willingly. 



FRENCH THOUGHT 275 

strong as to disturb or threaten the equiHbrium of 
Europe. That fact is the greatest reason for the 
Triple Entente. France and England began to under- 
stand each other. They found that their interests were 
not antagonistic, but reciprocal. 

"Common commercial dealings was the first step to 
this understanding. England and France were heavy 
purchasers one of the other. For instance, France 
does not produce enough coal for her own use, and 
therefore bought her extra supply from England ; and 
England bought great quantities of products such as 
foodstuffs and objects of art and luxuries from 
France. But England bought over one billion francs' 
worth of products from France more than France 
bought from England. On the other hand, the trade 
between Germany and England nearly balanced. 

'Tt was chiefly to carry out the great principle of 
the equilibrium of Europe that the Russian alliance 
was made. Of course, the conditions which produced 
the entente grew stronger all the time, and the Russian 
alliance fitted into this entente perfectly." 

*T have heard it said," I observed, "that it was 
England's traditional policy, running back as far as 
the Spanish supremacy, to oppose that continental na- 
tion which showed the greatest strength — first Spain, 
then France, then Russia and even Holland in between. 
Is that the source of England's opposition to Germany 
now?" I inquired. 

"Well, why not?" quickly answered the French 
statesman, and continued, "Why is it not the wnse pol- 
icy on England's part to see that no one nation be- 
comes dominant? That is simply maintaining the equi- 



276 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Hbrium of Europe. That is the great central principle. 
No one nation on the continent must become so strong 
that it threatens the position of other nations as first 
Powers. The idea is that such an equilibrium shall be 
maintained that all can live peacefully. 

"The real reason of the conflict is to maintain the 
equilibrium of Europe, which the growing power of 
Germany is disturbing. Then Germany's conduct has 
been irritating; there has always been the rattling of 
the saber, and speeches by the Kaiser about his powder 
being always dry. It is just like a man going about 
the streets heavily armed, with pistols and knives 
sticking out all over him. Well, you pay no attention 
to him. But when he begins to swagger and talk 
about using them, peaceable people get together to take 
measures to see that he keeps the peace." 

"But suppose Germany, or any other one nation, did 
become the leading Power of Europe," I asked, "how 
would that hurt the French people in their industry 
and lives?" 

"It would not, perhaps, in that respect. But the 
point is that with Germany the first Power of Europe, 
France could no longer be one of the first Powers of 
Europe. She would be one of the secondary Powers. 
Of course, Germany might grow as big as she liked; 
but her threatening attitude menaced our position as 
one of the first Powers of Europe. 

"But to get back to the origin of the entente, not 
only did it grow out of economic conditions between 
England and France, but also out of colonial policy. 
Both France and England found that they could agree 



FRENCH THOUGHT 277 

as to their spheres of colonial activity. Neither stood 
in the way of the other. This was a very important 
ground of the mutual understanding which first made 
the foundations for the entente. This mutual inter- 
est grew out of what at first seemed very irritating 
circumstances. But these very incidents, such as the 
Fashoda affair, made it clear to both countries how 
friction could be avoided — that France could drop out 
here and England could drop out there, each keeping 
out of the other's way. 

"Russia's entering the entente came about in the 
same manner. The Franco-Russian alliance laid the 
ground for it, of course. But the Dogger Bank inci- 
dent, which threatened war, really was the occasion 
for the same policy of understanding which had grown 
up between France and England. France pointed out 
to both England and Russia that the interests of all 
were common and that the Dogger Bank incident 
ought to be composed. And that very thing was done 
right here in Paris. This led to an understanding be- 
tween Russia and England as to their relative posses- 
sions and interests in Asia. Such is the general out- 
line of the entente, whose reason for existence is to 
maintain the equilibrium of Europe, and whose imme- 
diate object was to see that the growing strength and 
threatening attitude of Germany did not upset that 
equilibrium. Not only did Germany's growing 
strength make the entente necessary, but this was made 
still greater by the Triple Alliance, which Bismarck 
formed for Germany's protection. He first got Aus- 
tria on the ground of 'Germanism,' there being much 



278 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

in common between the two in race and language. 
Then he got even Italy." 

Let us turn now to unofficial French opinion. 

The French Scholar and Publicist 

Gabriel Hanotaux is known throughout the world 
as one of the first intellects of France and one of her 
ripest scholars. He was for many years Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, and still earlier one of the construct- 
ive minds which shaped the destinies of modern 
France. For example, Hanotaux was the father of 
the Franco-Russian alliance. A letter from an inti- 
mate mutual friend was the means of the following 
notable conversation. 

Monsieur Hanotaux is a man of great vigor, phy- 
sically and mentally, although past middle age. He is 
direct, simple, outspoken. He states his points clearly 
and with great emphasis. 

Asked what was really the beginning of the war, 
Monsieur Hanotaux answered : 

"You will find the roots of it in the great wrong 
Germany did when she took Alsace and Lorraine by 
force. With us it is a principle that no territory shall 
be taken whose inhabitants object. The inhabitants of 
Alsace and Lorraine did object. Their consent was 
not asked. Thus a vital principle was violated." 

"But," I remarked, "did not France violate that 
same principle in acquiring her colonies and posses- 
sions, such as Morocco, Algiers and others?" 

"That is not the same thing," answered Monsieur 
Hanotaux. "In countries in a state of anarchy, whose 



FRENCH THOUGHT 279 

people not only are not civilized, but are a constant 
source of danger to their neighbors, the principle does 
not apply. Take, for example, your own case. Serious 
trouble broke out on the frontiers of Mexico — " 

"Oh, spare me Mexico," I observed. "You mean 
that France has done with her colonies and possessions 
just as we have done in the Philippines?" 

"Yes, that is a good example. And you took other 
territory in the same way." 

"Oh, yes," I admitted; "we took some of our terri- 
tory that way." 

"Well," said Monsieur Hanotaux, "the taking of 
Alsace and Lorraine by force was not at all that sort of 
thing. It was just as if the Japanese should take Cali- 
fornia and your Pacific coast. Would you submit to it ? 
Would you forget it? Would you not want it back?" 

"We certainly should," I admitted. "But, of 
course, Alsace and Lorraine was not the present cause 
of this terrible conflict." 

"No, certainly not," answered Monsieur Hanotaux, 
"France has been most patient these last forty years, 
and that in spite of the violent aggressiveness of Ger- 
many in Alsace and Lorraine. She would have been 
patient even longer. I gave that only as an example 
of what lies at the root of all the trouble which Ger- 
man ambition has brought upon the world. But let 
us now come to more immediate causes of the war. 

"The whole policy of Germany was changed by the 
Emperor's announcement of Germany's idea of *Welt- 
politik.' You may read it in the newspapers of the 
period — the speeches of the Kaiser and of his Chan- 
cellor, Von Buelow. Germany's population had 



280 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

grown so great that they felt that more territory was 
needed. This meant colonies, and colonies meant a 
fleet. So Germany began to build up a fleet, a navy 
which she hoped to make the greatest in the world. 
As to colonies, Germany was entitled to them as much 
as any other country. But she was too late. The 
best parts of the earth were taken already ; so her idea 
of colonial expansion was impossible. Thereupon she 
resolved, to employ Bernhardi's expression, to take 
what belonged to others. This is shown clearly by 
what actually happened. First, she tried China. She 
got a foothold there. Indeed, her dream was the con- 
quest of China. That, of course, brought her in con- 
flict with Japan. So she failed there. The next 
route of expansion for Germany was to become the 
heir of the Ottoman Empire, as well as, through Tur- 
key, to reach the Persian Gulf. So she cultivated 
Turkey. But how should she get to Turkey ? Through 
Austria, of course. And so began the policy of pene- 
tration into the Balkans. Of this Servia stood in the 
way. So Servia must be made a victim. Thus war 
was declared in reality long before the Austrian Arch- 
duke was assassinated — indeed, as far back as August, 
1913, as Monsieur Giolitti's revelations prove, when 
Austria decided to dispose of Servia — Servia was to 
be subjugated by Austria. And thus, with the Bagdad 
railway in her hands, Germany's course was open all 
the way to the Persian Gulf. 

"As a part of this plan came Germany's courting of 
the Moslem peoples. You recall, for example, the 
Emperor's dramatic journey to Jerusalem? So much 
for the Balkans. But everywhere, throughout the 



FRENCH THOUGHT 281 

world, this *Weltpolitik' was equally aggressive, as 
numerous other circumstances of the same kind illus- 
trate. Now just see how all this Germany policy, 
which she calls 'Weltpolitik,' came into direct conflict 
with each of the Allies, one after another, making each 
of them antagonistic to her, 

"First take France. There was the Morocco affair. 
The state of anarchy in that country forced us, as the 
nearest neighbors, to take a hand. But the Kaiser 
went to Morocco and made a speech in which he said 
that Germany recognized no other authority than the 
Sultan of Morocco, the native authority. Now, France 
is peaceful — above all things, France is peaceful. 
Therefore, in a sense, France backed down in the Mo- 
rocco affair, just to keep the peace. But Germany 
increased her aggressiveness. There came the Agadir 
incident. Once more Germany interfered. A German 
warship was sent to Agadir, and threats were made. 
Under these threats France again gave way — just to 
keep peace. And so also France gave up part of her 
Kongo territory in Africa to Germany, although Ger- 
many had no right to it. Again France did this solely 
for the sake of peace. And yet all the time Germany 
was stirring up trouble with the Moslems of these parts 
of the world; there was constant turmoil, for which 
Germany only was responsible. These are examples of 
the conflict with France of Germany's theory of terri- 
torial expansion. 

"Second, see how this German theory of expansion 
impinged on Russia. Russia, defeated at Mukden, 
torn by internal dissensions, wished no external com- 
plications. Everybody has known for years that she 



282 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

desired to reach the sea. Constantinople was her nat- 
ural objective, as well as the Persian Gulf. But again 
Germany interfered with the Bagdad railway. By this 
she could get to the Persian Gulf. This Bagdad rail- 
way cut Russia off from the Persian Gulf, and Ger- 
many's domination of Turkey cut Russia off from 
Constantinople and the Mediterranean. Finally, in 
order to control the Balkans, Germany plotted the de- 
struction of Servia, a little Slav country, protected by 
Russia. You see from these examples how Germany's 
plan of expansion brought her into conflict with Rus- 
sia, just as the Moroccan, Agadir and other instances 
are examples of how Germany's policy of expansion 
brought her into conflict with France. 

"Third, Germany's conflict with England. Eng- 
land was and is, like every commercial people, peace- 
loving, just as France and Russia are peace-loving. 
The proof of this is before all men's eyes to-day. For 
ten years England has been governed by the Liberal 
party. This party wanted no war with anybody about 
anything. The whole policy of the English Liberal 
party was peace with the outside world, because it 
needed this peace to effect its own internal reforms. 
Let me prove England's peaceful intentions. She 
has had no land army to speak of, and she would not 
increase it. On the other hand, Germany has built up 
an immense army and constantly increased it. That 
shows conclusively the peaceful intentions of England 
and the warlike intentions of Germany." 

"Do you include the navy in this reasoning?" I in- 
terrupted. 

"The navy," answered Monsieur Hanotaux, "is a 



FRENCH THOUGHT 283 

different thing altogether. England needs her navy for 
her own defense." 

"But England's navy," I observed, "is as large as 
that of any two other Powers combined. Is not this 
England's naval principle? Our Admiral Mahan, in 
his book on sea power, points out that England's naval 
superiority has given her a dominant position for more 
than an hundred years, if I remember correctly," I 
suggested. 

"You must remember that England does not feed 
herself from within," explained Monsieur Hanotaux. 
"She must get her food from abroad. Thus a great 
navy is essential. I have already referred to Germany's 
navy. But let us now take up where Germany's 
'Weltpolitik' conflicted with England's interests, as 
I have pointed out the collision of Germany's 'Welt- 
politik' with the interests of France and Russia. 
Twenty years ago the German Emperor said to Gen- 
eral Obrontcheff, then Chief of the Russian General 
Staff : *I shall sign the peace of the world in London.' 
I quote his exact words. I have published that in my 
book on the Policy of Equilibrium. The Emperor 
also said in substance that Germany must get rid of 
England. Having failed in the Chinese and Turkish 
adventures, Germany's colonial policy was to obtain 
possession of the richest colonies in the world, which 
are those of Holland, Belgium and France. With 
these, Germany would be a dangerous rival of Eng- 
land. But let me here give you a further example of 
England's peaceful intentions— I mean the visits of 
Lord Haldane and Mr. Lloyd George to Germany. 
Both made speeches about England's friendship for 



284 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Germany ; Mr. Lloyd George was especially emphatic. 
So deeply was this impression made in Germany that 
Herr von Jagow, the German Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, said how surprised Germany was when Eng- 
land came into this war. If he had thought a little 
upon these facts which I have been reviewing for you 
he might not have been so surprised." 

"Do you think that Germany intended to acquire 
French, Belgian and Dutch colonies as a result of this 
war?" I asked. 

"Why, of course!" answered Monsieur Hanotaux. 
"And here is the proof : The German Ambassador to 
Great Britain naively remarked to Sir Edward Grey 
that that was just what Germany did want 1" 

"So it is French opinion that Germany had a defi- 
nite and far-reaching aggressive program for war, is 
it?" I inquired. 

"Certainly !" answered Monsieur Hanotaux. "Ger- 
many expected to dispose of Russia first, France next, 
and then attack England separately. After England it 
would have been your turn. Germany would have 
attacked the United States next. I speak of what I 
know. The German Emperor has declared more than 
twenty times that he intended to attack the United 
States." 

"What would the Emperor expect to gain by attack- 
ing the United States?" I remarked. 

"I haven't any idea," said Monsieur Hanotaux. "All 
I know is that he did make the statement, twenty times 
at least. With a little trouble, I could look up and cite 
you the occasions. But as I was saying, an evidence 
of England's peaceful intentions is before us in this 



FRENCH THOUGHT 285 

war, for England would never have come into this 
war, save for the violation of Belgian neutrality. In 
fact, going into the war at all worried England a great 
deal, and we, too, were worried for fear she would 
not do so." 

"It has been published," said I, "that an arrange- 
ment was made by England, France and Belgium un- 
der which England and France were to invade Ger- 
many through Belgium in case of war ; and it is claimed 
that this had already violated Belgian neutrality." 

"So far as France is concerned, I can speak per- 
sonally, for I have been Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
and I know what I am talking about," asserted Mon- 
sieur Hanotaux. "I give you my word of honor that 
so far as France is concerned, no such transaction ever 
took place. Indeed, the documents themselves do not 
pretend to involve France. But what do these docu- 
ments amount to ? Just a conversation between the Brit- 
ish military attache and somebody in the Belgian gov- 
ernment! It is not even claimed that this reached the 
form of a treaty. And even this conversation touched 
only on the case where Germany should first have in- 
vaded Belgium !" 

"How long will the war last. Monsieur Hanotaux?" 

"A fortnight ago," Monsieur Hanotaux answered, 
"I thought the war would last a year, perhaps a year 
and a half. To-day I think it will not last so long." 

"What has changed your mind in this short time?" 
I asked. 

"The impending fall of Constantinople,"* said Mon- 
sieur Hanotaux. "When that occurs, which will be 



*This conversation occurred March 1, 1915. 



286 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

soon, the circle of iron will be closed about Germany. 
The Balkan States and Italy will join the Allies. That, 
of course, will hasten the inevitable end, which will be 
the defeat of Germany." 

"In case the Allies are successful, what terms will 
they impose on Germany ?" 

"Ask Monsieur Delcasse! I am not Minister for 
Foreign Affairs !" 

The Prophet of the New Philosophy 

A quiet old house, far back from the street, with a 
still garden between to protect it from the un frequent 
noise of the most quiet corner of Auteuil, the calmest 
suburb of Paris, is the abode of Monsieur Henri Berg- 
son, the noted French philosopher. It is just the home 
for a thinker. There, at luncheon, we discussed the 
war. 

Monsieur Bergson justifies his reputation by his ap- 
pearance. The long, thin, intellectual face; the expan- 
sive brow ; most of all the large blue eyes, whose lights 
reflect keenness, mysticism and kindness — indeed, the 
whole personality of the man, gives one the impres- 
sion of great mental acuteness, mingled with poetic 
idealism. Monsieur Bergson is perhaps the best repre- 
sentative of intellectual France. 

"It is all so simple to us — the cause of this awful 
war; at least the immediate cause of it," said France's 
great philosopher. "That cause is Germany's policy 
of aggression. This policy grew out of a few funda- 
mental facts. For example, her population had be- 
come so very great that Germany felt the need of ex- 



FRENCH THOUGHT 287 

panding. She must have an outlet. France, and 
France's colonies, was to be the first victim. Indeed, 
Germany has felt this for a long time. We knew it, 
too. That was the real cause of the Russian alliance. 
Without that, we should have had to stand alone 
against Germany." 

"Was it this Russian alliance which caused France 
to go into this war?" I inquired. 

"That was an incident only," replied the French 
philosopher. "The real cause lay far deeper. H Ger- 
many had made war on Russia and won, then France 
would have come next; and afterward England. As 
to England, there was an economic conflict. 

"But I am perfectly sure that England would never 
have attacked Germany. If she had meant to do so, 
she would not have waited so long. Even now the 
English nation would not have consented to go to war 
if it had not been that they felt it their duty toward 
Belgium. On the contrary, the aim of Germany was 
very probably to attack England in a few years hence, 
and that is one of the main reasons of the present war. 
Germany wanted to crush France and Russia first, so 
that England would have to stand alone when Ger- 
many had completed her naval arrangements and be- 
come strong enough to attack her." 

"We Americans," I observed, "can comprehend the 
commercial conflict between England and Germany. 
I myself saw that conflict many years ago, in every 
visit I then made to the Orient. It was plain to the 
naked eye. But it is not plain to us why Germany 
should wish to wage an aggressive war against either 
France or Russia. We do not see the economic con- 



288 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

flict between Germany and France, nor between Ger- 
many and Russia. So we do not see the reason for 
Germany's policy of aggression against those two 
countries." 

"Yet it is very plain," answered Monsieur Bergson, 
"and sordidly material. In considering it, however, let 
us not forget Germany's determination to be the domi- 
nant power of the world. That is psychological. She 
wishes to be first in everything ; to lead everything ; to 
direct everything. She has manifested this in her 
threatening attitude. The rattling of the saber and the 
rolling of the drum !" 

"But to us Americans who do not understand Euro- 
pean politics, that does not seem substantial," I urged. 
"Suppose Germany, or France, or any other country- 
claimed to be the 'first power of the world;' England 
did that for a long while; some in America have 
dreamed of it, as the destiny of our own country. But 
what of it? Let any country strut as it likes, rattle 
the saber, beat the drum and wear all the trappings it 
wants to — how does that hurt the people of any other 
country? How would it hurt the working men and 
business men of America if France should do that 
foolish thing? How would it hurt the working men, 
the business men of France if Germany did make this 
empty claim to primacy and it was accorded her? 
Would not your life go on just the same?" 

"No, indeed," answered Monsieur Bergson; "and 
that is just the point. Germany would follow this up 
with war upon us, just as she is making now. Then, 
even if she took no territory, would come the imposi- 
tion of German goods upon us, German workmen 



FRENCH THOUGHT 289 

would take the place of our workmen here in France. 
German business would take the place of French busi- 
ness Our industry would go. Germans would buy 
up our land ; France would go. It would be the end 
of France— the end of our ideas, our ideals, our cul- 
ture, our civilization. All would become Germanized. 
So if you look at it only from the material and eco- 
nomic side, you see that we fight not only for physical 
existence but, what is far more important, for our very 

civihzation." ^Uo^-?" T en a 

"But would the Germans go so far as that.'' i sug 

^^"There is no doubt at all about that," replied Mon- 
sieur Bergson. "It is their theory of Germany s mission 
in the world. They would make all -Iture fenjan 
'Kultur.' Our idea is exactly the reverse. \\ e think 
that every nation which has developed a culture has 
Lade something of value to tl^ whole human race^ 
Let Germany keep her 'Kultur' and deve op it, bu^ 
also let France keep her culture and develop it and 
Endand keep her culture and develop it. It is tne 
manifestation of human evolution at different angles^ 
And this is good for the world. But it is bad for the 
world to have any one system made universal; and 
this bad is made worse if this is done by force. \ et 
iust this is Germany's idea and purpose. 

"What do you understand, Monsieur Bergson, to be 
Germany's idea of culture?" 

"Ris '' answered the French thinker, "a subjection 
of the individual to the state, for the purpose of an 
uniform efficiency; and probably also a subjection o 
all other European nations to German influence, for 



290 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

the purpose of a uniformity that will be profitable to 
Germany." 

"The Germans do not consider their 'Kultur' as you 
have described it," I explained. "They make a dis- 
tinction between civilization and *Kultur.' Civiliza- 
tion, they say, has to do with material things ; such as 
conduct, manners and the practical intercourse of men 
and nations; but 'Kultur' has to do with the things of 
the spirit and the soul. The German idea is that civ- 
ilization is of this world and of the present; 'Kultur' 
of the higher world and of the eternal. England, they 
say, is civilized, but not cultured; France is both civ- 
ilized and cultured." 

"We make no such distinction," said Monsieur Berg- 
son. "With us civilization and culture are one. They 
merge. This very distinction illustrates the German 
mental habit of separating things which really are not 
separable. They think with two minds, act with two 
souls." 

"Still, Monsieur Bergson," I remarked, "one neces- 
sarily is struck by this fact : that the working out of 
this German conception of culture is broader than 
Germany's scholars and thinkers. For example, I have 
found that German business men whom our business 
men think are interested only in business, are really far 
more interested in metaphysical subjects and other 
nonmaterial things. They meet our business men and 
talk trade, markets and prices because they must; but 
they would far rather talk with an informed and 
thoughtful person on philosophy, poetry, music, art." 

"That," replied Monsieur Bergson, "is what I mean 
by speaking and thinking with two minds and two 



FRENCH THOUGHT 291 

souls. One of the two souls may be concerned, as you 
say, with philosophy, poetry, music, art ; but the other 
is below the ordinary level of humanity. We have seen 
that other soul at work since the beginning of the war, 
and we know what it is worth." 

"There is one thing, anyhow, that can be said for 
them," I observed; "you can state to them, in the 
bluntest possible manner, your objections to them, and 
they will answer without being offended. They will 
say that objection is not the fact, and show why; or 
they will say this other objection is not valid for such 
and such reasons. The point is that they will meet 
you face to face in discussion." 

"Yes," said Monsieur Bergson ; "that is quite true — 
which makes my point still stronger about two souls 
and two minds ; for they answer you with words and 
reasons, but they do not live those words and reasons. 
And it is living and acting that counts !" 

"But what has this to do with their imposing their 
ideas on the world?" I asked. 

"It has everything to do with it," said Monsieur 
Bergson. "They are so engrossed in their idea of the 
superiority of German 'Kultur' that they do not rec- 
ognize the great truth that other nations, with their 
different cultures, have a right to exist. We French, 
on the contrary, believe that when any people have de- 
veloped into a nation they have proved their right to a 
separate existence, and that the thought, the ideal, the 
culture of that nation as thus developed is a contribu- 
tion to the sum of human welfare. So we say that no 
one nation, no matter how powerful, is right or wise in 
forcing its intellectual domination on any other na- 



292 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

tion, no matter how weak or small. Take Alsace and 
Lorraine for example. Germany tried to force her 
thought and methods of life on Alsace and Lorraine. 
If the people of those provinces had accepted this Ger- 
man mental and moral domination, well and good. 
But they did not. They remained French and are 
French." 

"But," I observed, "would you call Alsace and Lor- 
raine a nation?" 

"No," replied Monsieur Bergson; "but vital parts of 
a nation." 

"If I understand you, Monsieur Bergson, what you 
have said is also a priciple with us Americans ; yet we 
have taken much of our territory regardless of it. Have 
you not done the same in the case of your possessions 
and colonies, Algiers, Morocco and the rest?" 

"It can not be said," replied Monsieur Bergson, 
"that these were nations. They were warring tribes. 
They had no solidarity, no national consciousness. 
They had not proved to the world the usefulness, even 
to themselves, of their turbulent condition. So our 
theory that a people who have welded themselves to- 
gether until they have become a collective human entity 
does not apply to bands of individuals in the state in 
which the inhabitants of Algiers, Morocco and our 
other possessions were before France took charge of 
them." 

"But," said the French philosopher, "all this is inci- 
dental. The great elemental issue is that of separate 
and distinct developments of separate and distinct peo- 
ples as against a rigid and unnatural uniformity. 
Broadly stated, it is an issue between liberty and abso- 



FRENCH THOUGHT 293 

lutism. Shall Europe and the world become just one 
thing, or shall nations who are different, but each of 
them good in some respect, progress along the natural 
line of their ow^n development?" 

"You seem to indicate that, at bottom, the conflict 
is deeper than mistakes of diplomatists or the ambi- 
tions of governments, and that it is a w^ar of peoples 
and of opposing ideals," I observed. 

"Yes; at bottom, perhaps, that is true," replied this 
leader of French thought. 

"H so, the war may last a very long time, may it 
not?" I asked. 

"It may, indeed," answ^ered Monsieur Bergson. "I 
hope not ; I think not. But it may." 

"Mr. Chamberlain suggested that there might be a 
series of wars," I observed. 

"That, too, is possible, historically speaking," said 
Monsieur Bergson. "But we mean to carry this war 
to such a final conclusion that another war will be im- 
possible, at least for a very long time." 

"What is French thought as to that conclusion in 
case the Allies win?" I inquired. 

"We shall win. We have not the least doubt about 
that. Then will come the great readjustment. Al- 
sace and Lorraine will become a part of France again, 
because they were unjustly and wrongfully torn away 
from France, and because their people have persisted 
in remaining French. We shall break the German 
military system and idea." 

"How?" I asked. 

"That is to be w^orked out," answered Monsieur 
Bergson. "But perhaps the German people will attend 



294 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

to that themselves, when they see the failure of their 
military caste." 

"France's loss of men is a serious factor, consider- 
ing her population and birth rate," I remarked. "The 
same loss in our Southern States during our own great 
Civil War, when the South held out for four years, 
suggests this thought : Can France afford this loss ; 
how far are you willing to go in order to win?" 

"To the very last man," said Monsieur Bergson. "To 
the very last*," he repeated. "Sacrifice does not matter. 
If we should lose France would disappear as a nation." 

"In America where the feminist movement is strong, 
the question is asked : How long will the women of 
the countries at war permit the slaughter to go on?," 

"The French women suffer and are brave and un- 
yielding," exclaimed Monsieur Bergson with emotion. 
"They do not hesitate at the sacrifice. Among women 
and men alike there is a deep quiet feeling which is al- 
most exaltation." 

"Do you look for a happier state of humanity as 
the final outcome of the war?" I inquired. 

"Yes; more kindness, more liberty, more brother- 
hood. But I can not say that it is reasonable to ex- 
pect war to disappear from the earth altogether. 

"But there is one thing more, and that a thing of 
serious importance. We think that Germany has dis- 
honored herself in the way she declared war and in 
her manner of conducting it. We feel very deeply 
indeed on both these points. Especially on the latter, 
Germany's brutality in the conduct of the war, 
is our feeling intense. It is so deep and so strong 
that it expresses itself in the quietness of our conduct 



FRENCH THOUGHT 295 

and speech ; we simply have no words to express our 
feeling. As I have said to you, we shall go on to the 
very end, regardless of sacrifice or cost, however great. 
This element of French thought and emotion should 
always be considered when estimating French spirit 
and opinion in this crisis." 



XII 

FRENCH THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR II 

Manufacturer, Peace Adi'ocatc and Agitator 
France's Master Manufacturer 

TO ONLY a few men in France is accorded in- 
dustrial supremacy. One of these everybody 
in France agrees is Eugene Schneider, owner and 
active manager of the world-famed Le Creusot works, 
and whose artillery has attracted the attention of all 
nations. There are those in France who say that Mon- 
sieur Schneider is the leading business man of the Re- 
public. He is still a young man, only forty-six 
years old. Earnestness and sincerity are the qualities 
which first strike the observer when meeting this un- 
usual man. 

But it is not in his constructive business genius and 
its remarkable results that Monsieur Schneider takes 
most pride. On the contrary, it is the social betterment 
of his forty thousand employees which to him, and, in- 
deed, to his whole family, are the chief source of grati- 
fication. 

In familiar talk at a family luncheon the conversa- 
tion turned, of course, to France's desperate crisis. 

296 



FRENCH THOUGHT 297 

Madame Schneider's comments are typical of those of 
many French women of the highest classes. 

"We are all one family," said Madame Schneider. 
"Since four generations the contact was always abso- 
lutely close. The elderly people say with pride and 
devotion : T worked under the orders of your grand- 
father and father,' and should anything happen to one 
of our children we feel the whole population would 
go through the same anxiety as ourselves. Every- 
body in the place is ready to help and protect them, if 
needed, as we are ready to help and protect any of 
theirs!" 

"You see," said Monsieur Schneider, "it is the spirit 
back of any enterprise that makes it successful, and 
not merely the mechanics of business plan and detail." 
"And," remarked Madame Schneider, "just that is 
the most remarkable thing in regenerated France. It 
began a few years before the war. The young gen- 
eration talked of the serious, the elevated. We no- 
ticed it in our sons, and everybody else's children we 
found to be just the same. The solid, the noble, a 
mixture of energy and kindness are in vogue; the 
frivolous is no longer fashionable." 

"Yes," said Monsieur Schneider, "this spirit of our 
people is the soul of the conflict, so far as France is 
concerned. It surprised everybody, even ourselves; 
most of all, it surprised the Germans. They thought 
us decadent; they found us and we found ourselves, 
recrudescent. Indeed, they did find us weak, in the 
sense that we were not prepared. But now we are 
strong; from the first day we grew stronger. At first 
we were weakest; now we are strongest." 



298 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"What, Monsieur Schneider, is the opinion of the 
French business world as to the real cause of this 
war?" I asked. 

"The carrying into action of the German tendency 
to take what they want, or think they need, whether 
it belongs to them or not," answered the famous 
French gun manufacturer. "It is part of the German 
mental make-up to take, take, take. We have been 
threatened with this for more than forty years. There 
was always over us the shadow of aggression." 

"Do you mean that French business opinion thought 
Germany intended to take anything from France, in 
a physical sense, such as territory or colonies?" I in- 
quired. 

"Yes, we are convinced that this was Germany^s 
purpose," he replied. "The northern and eastern 
parts of our country are very, very rich. Our best 
ore and coal mines are there ; our best agricultural dis- 
trict is there ; our finest textile establishments, such as 
lace factories, are there ; our greatest, or at least very 
important, steel and iron works are there. And this 
territory adjoins Germany or Belgium. The Germans 
said : 'We like that country — why not take it ?' There 
is the adjacent district, with its ports of Calais, Le 
Havre, Dunkirk and Cherbourg. The Germans said : 
'These ports are good for us to have, too. From them 
we look across the Channel to England. With them 
we could at least divide the Channel with England. 
They would be an immense advantage in our program 
of sea power; in any event, it is good for us to have 
them. Let us take them then.' " 

"But," I remarked, "would not Germany see that 



FRENCH THOUGHT 299 

this might be another Alsace and Lorraine — a source 
of trouble and of possible revolution within her own 
dominion? li so, would the Germans want to take 
this French territory as a matter of cold deliberate 
plan ? Would she not have another hostile population 
on her hands?" 

"She would not reason so from her experience in 
Alsace and Lorraine," Monsieur Schneider responded. 
"Many of the inhabitants of those provinces left 
rather than to endure German rule. Others stayed 
for as long as twenty years, and then left. The places 
of all these were taken by Germans, So Germany 
could well reason that the Champaigne, Picardy and 
other districts would also become Germanized. I do 
not think that the difficulty of an unfriendly popula- 
tion would have deterred her." 

"But may not Germany have learned a lesson from 
her own experience with Alsace and Lorraine, just as 
the British did from their treatment of us and our 
revolution, which their treatment caused?" 

"Perhaps she might," answered Monsieur Schneider. 
"Perhaps she has learned that kindness, rather than 
force, is the wise treatment of a subject people. But 
all of that is immaterial in view of her actual purpose 
to take and our purpose to resist being taken. We do 
not intend that France shall become Germanized," 

"But," I remarked, in surprise, "do French busi- 
ness men really think that the Germans intend to Ger- 
manize France?" 

"Why, they were doing it already. Perhaps it 
would have been wiser for them if they had gone on 
with their program of peaceful Germanization." 



300 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"What do you mean by peaceful Germanization ?" 

"Why," said Monsieur Schneider, "all over France 
German business men were coming in and taking our 
commerce. German laborers were displacing French 
working men. And with all this went Germany's de- 
sire to be the first Power of Europe, and later on, of 
the world." 

"But what we Americans can not see is how Ger- 
many's asserting that she was the first Power would 
hurt France, or any other nation, practically. Would 
not French business men go on doing their business, 
French working men continue at their labor and France 
exist?" 

"Well," answered Monsieur Schneider, "that might 
be if they only intended to assert that they were the 
first Power. But then they would at once use their 
power to take our place (and, perhaps, later on, your 
own place) in the commerce of the world. Then, of 
course, we might still exist, but under German power, 
and only to do as we should be told to do by Germany 
and the Germans, and never to do what we might want 
to do ourselves." 

"Do you mean that, even without war? Just by 
the fact that Germany claimed to be and was acknowl- 
edged to be the first Powxr of Europe?" I asked. 

"Yes, indeed," said Monsieur Schneider, "more con- 
crete and immediate. H Germany wins, a great part of 
France is gone. That is plain from what already has 
happened. Germany to-day occupies some of the 
richest territory of France — the mining district, where 
also is located our best textile and metal industries — 
is still in German hands now. It is clear to us that 



FRENCH THOUGHT 301 

if Germany wins France is reduced to nothing. That 
would mean the reduction of millions of French men 
and women to a worse position than that of the Alsa- 
tians before the war; the loss of some of the most 
venerated places and monuments in France, the battle- 
fields of Valny and Montmirail, the cathedral of 
Rheims, the cottage of Joan of Arc, etc. So it is war 
for existence on our part." 

"In America the feminist movement is very strong, 
and the question is on the lips of our people : 'How 
long will the women of France let this war go on?' " 

"I can answer that," said Madame Schneider. "Our 
sons are young, hardly more than boys. When the 
war began they enrolled at once, and, dear as they are 
to us, I immediately consented. France is our com- 
mon mother, and no mother in France would keep her 
sons away from that absolute duty; to protect and 
save France. You should read, as I have, the letters 
of French mothers to their sons, and the letters of 
these sons to their mothers." 

"May it be, then," I asked, "that this is a people's 

war? 

"It seems to be," answered Monsieur Schneider. 

"If that is so, it may last for a long time." 

"It may, indeed," replied Monsieur Schneider, 
"though I do not know. But long or short, we shall 
fight to the end." 

"Yes," said Madame Schneider, "we want to finish 
while we are about it. We do not want our children 
to go through what we are going through now." 

I said, "The Schneider guns are playing an im- 
portant part in the war and are considered by French 



302 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

military men as superior to the Krupp guns. The 
world is interested in your establishment. How did 
it make headway?" 

"Our works made most of the French guns from 
the time of Louis XVI, 1782, to the end of Napoleon's 
reign, 1815," Monsieur Schneider explained. "Then 
after the final peace a law passed that no private enter- 
prise should make guns for foreign countries. This 
law was enforced until after the Franco-Prussian War 
(one of the many reasons for France's failure in that 
1870 war was the inferiority of our artillery). After 
the Franco-Prussian War this law was repealed. Dur- 
ing this long period gun manufacture was a govern- 
ment monopoly; we then manufactured machinery, en- 
gines, metallic bridges, all kinds of iron and steel work, 
ships, and also a large amount of parts of guns, which 
were designed and mounted in government's concerns. 
I then said to my father : 'Artillery is the future 
weapon of war. So let us make guns again, not only, 
or even chiefly, as a good business plan, but also and 
principally for our country's defense.' Meanwhile, of 
course, the Krupps had built their great establishment, 
which was encouraged by the German government, 
whereas we were not encouraged by our own govern- 
ment." 

"How were you not encouraged by your govern- 
ment, and how were you then able to make guns at 
all? For whom did you make guns?" I inquired. 

"We always made parts of guns for the French navy 
and army — but we were only allowed to make parts of 
guns," answered Monsieur Schneider. "These parts 
were mounted by and in government concerns." 




Shells in the making. The artillery and shell department of the 

celebrated Le Creusot works in full blast. The Schneiders, 

proprietors of these and other similar plants, have made most 

French artillery from the time of Louis XVI. 



FRENCH THOUGHT 303 

"How then, did you get any foothold at all?" I 
asked. 

"Only by making better guns, and asking other gov- 
ernments to test our guns with any others," responded 
Monsieur Schneider. "It was a hard pull. I would 
go to a country and say : 'We have better guns.' That 
country's government would say : 'Why, then, does not 
your own government let you make its guns entirely; 
the Germans do that? The Kaiser says the Krupp 
guns are best. Your government does not say yours 
are best.' And all I could answer was : 'Try them. 
Test them. Compare them.' So, little by little, we 
made headway. H our artillery should prove better, 
it is only because I never have been satisfied that any- 
thing we did was the best that we could do ; but kept on 
trying to do better. Now the Schneider guns have been 
adopted by most governments in the world, as well as 
by the French government; and, of course, you know, 
for example, in the Balkan war, the Servians, Greeks 
and Bulgarians proved they were the best." 

"What do you expect. Monsieur Schneider, will be 
the result of the war?" 

"Our victory," answered Monsieur Schneider. 
"That is settled now." 

"But," I suggested, "what will you do with your 
victory if you get it?" 

"We shall make it impossible for France to be dis- 
turbed again — at least for one or two generations," re- 
sponded Monsieur Schneider. 

"And how will you do that if, as you seem to think 
possible, this is a war of peoples? There must now 
be shaping in the public mind some outline, however 



304 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

vague, of what you will do if you win. Especially 
should this be true of business men whose habit of 
mind is to think in concrete terms," I suggested. 

"That is in the future. Events shape policies, not 
policies events," Monsieur Schneider answered. 

"If you mean to destroy the military power of Ger- 
many, would you do it by dismembering the Imperial 
government," I asked. 

"I do not know, I can not say," answered Monsieur 
Schneider. "That would be difficult. It is hard to tell 
people what they must do, and then make them do it." 

"Do French business men contemplate disarmament 
of all nations?" I asked; "would this mean a limita- 
tion of navies as well as armies? If so, on what prin- 
ciple? For example, must England have only the 
same size navy as France? Would England agree to 
that?" I inquired. 

"That is a hard problem. It is for the future," said 
Monsieur Schneider. 

"Suppose disarmament did come, how would that 
affect your industry?" 

"Scarcely at all," said Monsieur Schneider. "We 
should at once turn all our energies to the manufac- 
ture of engines, locomotives and other things made of 
metal. Indeed, that is our chief business, anyhow." 

"But," said I, "what would become of the Krupps?" 

"Just the same," answered Monsieur Schneider. 
"They, too, manufacture as many things for peace as 
for war." 

"As a result of this war, do you anticipate that both 
you and the Krupps will cease making guns, armor 
plate, battleships, submarines?" I asked. 



FRENCH THOUGHT 305 

(For the Schneider works, like the Krupp works, 
manufacture armor plate, build ships, construct sub- 
marines; and the Schneiders have factories at Le 
Havre, Bordeaux and other places, just as the Krupps 
have factories at Kiel, Stettin, etc.) 

"I do not," positively answered Monsieur Schneider. 
"That would mean universal peace. But universal peace 
would mean that every nation, people and country 
would agree never to fight again, and that some power 
could force them to keep that compact. Such a pros- 
pect is not in the immediate future, to say the least," 
said Monsieur Schneider. "I say this disinterestedly, 
for we make more work for purposes of peace than we 
do guns and armor plate and ships for purposes of war. 
It is a matter of self-respecting safety. After all, a 
nation is like a man. What do I do myself? I fence 
and ride every day. I do this in order to keep my 
body and mind in perfect condition to do my work 
principally, but also there always is the thought of 
being my own man and being prepared to assert that 
fact. I mean to harm nobody; but if a highwayman 
holds me up on the street I hope I should be able to 
give a good account of myself. The man who is 
weak, flaccid and powerless is anybody's prey. True, 
nobody may harm him, but anybody could harm him. 
It is just so with nations." 

An Eminent French Peace Advocate 

A prominent Frenchman, one of those who have 
been the most eloquent advocates of peace between 
the nations during the last few years, expressed him- 



306 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

self in the following way during a luncheon. At the 
request of this well-known French public man, his 
name is withheld; but the conversation was revised 
with great care by his secretary under his direction 
and is given exactly as he wished it to appear. 

"What, in French thought, was the real cause of 
the war?" I remarked. 

"We must always start from this foundation : 
'What is right?' A man must be right. A nation 
must be right. When men neglect what is right 
there always is trouble. When nationalities are 
crushed, there is no harmony in the world — so one of 
the causes of this frightful struggle is that right was 
not regarded." 

"In what respect do you mean?" I asked. "We 
Americans are so far away and so detached, physic- 
ally, from the rest of the world that it is hard for us 
to understand the complications of European politics. 
So we should like to know French opinion as to the 
real cause of the war. What began it?" 

"It is very easy to answer that," replied the eminent 
Frenchman. "The war's real beginning was at The 
Hague Peace Conference, when liberal powers pro- 
posed obligatory arbitration as a preventive of war, 
and when Germany refused to agree. Your Mr. 
Choate supported this idea, but Baron Marshall von 
Biberstein refused to follow him and worked in such 
a way that general arbitration was rejected, although 
twenty-two nations supported it, among them the 
United States, England, France, Russia." 

"Now, what about the limitation of armaments?" 
I inquired. "What rule was to be followed? For 



FRENCH THOUGHT 307 

example, were all nations to have the same sized 
navies ? Or was there to be a maximum navy which 
all might build, but none could exceed? Or were 
nations to be divided into classes according to their 
strength, wealth and so forth, certain nations being 
counted first-class Powers, others second-class Powers 
and so forth, the nations of each class to have the same 
sized navies? And was the same rule, or rules, to 
apply to the size and equipment of armies? In other 
words, just how was the limitation of armaments to 
be worked out; and, even more important, how was 
the arbitration to prevent war to be accomplished in a 
practical way?" 

The distinguished French publicist responded: 

"Limitation of armaments is a very important but 
difficult problem and in all cases it ought to be re- 
solved only after arbitration— the problem you refer 
to should have been resolved if the principle is admit- 
ted with a real good will." 

"But the war having actually broken out, why did 
France go into it?" 

"Only because France was invaded," was the answer. 

"But before actual hostilities, and assuming the war 
to have been between Germany and Russia, would 
France have joined in the war because of her alliance 
with Russia?" 

"The Russian alliance was not the only cause of 
France's action," replied the distinguished Frenchman. 
"France kept all her army ten kilometers behind her 
frontier — notwithstanding she was attacked. France 
fought, and is fighting now, because she zvas invaded." 

"But when Germany asked France what she would 



308 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

do in case of a Russo-German war, which then was 
impending, and France decHned to answer, was 
France's attitude influenced by her alHance with 
Russia?" I inquired. 

"Allies must be faithful to each other," he re- 
sponded. "But the great cause of war, as I have said, 
is because France was threatened and invaded. Her 
frontier was violated in twenty-five different points by 
German troops before the declaration of war." 

"In a conflict so tremendous as this, greater than 
any in history, there must have been some powerful 
forces, deep beneath the surface of diplomatic ex- 
changes, which brought it on. The American people 
earnestly wish to know what those forces were. Put- 
ting aside diplomatic correspondence, what was the 
real, the fundamental cause of the war? It seems to 
be a war of peoples, rather than an armed dispute of 
governments," I observed. 

"That is true. It is a war of peoples," remarked 
another brilliant member of the luncheon party, "and 
therefore," said he, "it is of course a conflict of ideals. 
Modern Germany stands for militarism in life as well 
as in arms. The German idea is that everybody should 
conform to the same rule in conduct, living, and even 
in thought. No man is allowed to develop in his own 
way ; no man acts independently. Everybody looks to 
some higher authority to regulate his conduct. The 
French idea is the exact reverse. In France, every 
man is his own master. He grows up in his own way, 
thinks his own thoughts, lives his own life. He culti- 
vates his individuality. The German idea is that of 
efficiency, which they think can be secured only by an 



FRENCH THOUGHT 309 

arbitrary absolutism. With them, efficiency is first 
and liberty second ; with us French, liberty is first and 
efficiency second." 

"That," said the French statesman, "is a correct 
statement of the opposing ideals of France and Ger- 
many. And the Germans want to impose their ideal, 
their 'Kultur,' as they call it, on France and the whole 
world." 

"But how," I inquired, "could the Germans force 
what you have said to be their ideal upon the French 
people? In a conflict of ideals, the one which wins 
must do so only by merit, must it not ? So why should 
these hostile ideals, these opposing systems of thought, 
be a cause of war?" 

"The Germans," was the reply, "were not content 
to let merit decide the controversy. They wished to 
extend their rule by force." 

"What good would that do Germany in a prac- 
tical way? How could war with France force the 
German intellectual system on to the French people?" 
I asked. 

"By taking some of our territory, as they took Al- 
sace and Lorraine. We have a proof of it in Cham- 
paigne; they told to the mayors that they would not 
like to burden the country because they were to stay 
definitively," said the noted French publicist. 

"Would Germany do that, merely to extend what 
you have said is her ideal of life? In what way would 
Germany be benefited by such a war, even if she were 
successful?" I inquired. 

"In three ways," he explained. "The territory which 
she now wishes is the Champaigne district of France. 



310 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

This is very rich, agriculturally and also in mines. In- 
deed, it is one of the richest if not the richest part of 
France. Also another part of the territory which Ger- 
many now wants, is that which includes the ports of Le 
Harve, Calais and Dunkirk. This new territory Ger- 
many wants and is trying to take would add greatly 
to her wealth and give her ports which would control 
the Channel and menace England. This is one way in 
which Germany would get material benefit from a suc- 
cessful war with France. 

"In the next place, the inhabitants of this territory 
would be forced to furnish more soldiers for the Ger- 
man army ; and Germany wants soldiers as much as she 
wants wealth and power. To the German mind, -sol- 
diers mean wealth and power. That is what Germany 
has her army for. 

"In the third place, if Germany could overcome 
France, she would take France's colonies and posses- 
sions. These are very valuable. They would give to 
Germany immense riches and a greatly extended com- 
merce. 

"These are three methods, plain to every one, by 
which Germany would reap an immense material 
benefit if she were victorious in a war with France." 

"Do you think, and is it the French opinion, that 
Germany has had all this in mind? Is it the French 
view that Germany has intended to take all this French 
territory and acquire French colonies and possessions, 
as a settled policy, steadily held by Germany for any 
length of time?" I inquired. 

"Yes," came the positive answer. "We all think so. 



FRENCH THOUGHT 311 

We believe that has been Germany's intention for 
many years." 

"You mentioned Alsace and Lorraine. Will France 
take back Alsace and Lorraine from Germany if 
France wins?" 

"li France wins! Why, she will win; she has al- 
ready won; Germany already is beaten!* Of course 
we shall take back Alsace and Lorraine ! That is not 
even to be discussed ! It is a good example of my first 
remark about being in the right. Right was violated 
when Germany took Alsace and Lorraine from France, 
and right will be vindicated when France takes back 
what is hers by right." 

"And then what?" 

"Then, of course, we shall destroy the military 
power of Germany. We shall make it impossible for 
Germany ever again to disturb the peace of Europe." 

"And how will you do that ?" 

"By putting Germany back where she was before 
German militarism was built up." 

"Do you mean that if the Allies are victorious they 
would place Germany where she was before 1870?" 

"Not exactly that. But we mean that German mili- 
tarism has grown up about their Imperial govern- 
ment. It is Germany's Imperial government that has 
fostered and cultivated German militarism. And as 
this militarism increased, Germany's Imperial govern- 
ment has shown more and more aggressiveness. There- 
fore, its destruction is necessary to secure and pre- 
serve the permanent peace of Europe." 



* The date of this conversation was February 25, 1915. 



312 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"What more do you think the Allies would require 
if successful?" 

"A war indemnity, of course. Also, the re-establish- 
ment of the integrity of Belgium. But above all, a 
system of arbitration and limitation of armaments 
which reduces the causes of war." 

A French Agitator 

The reconciHation, wrought by the war, of the most 
hostile French elements was illustrated by a luncheon 
at the house of one of the very wealthiest of the 
French bourgeoisie. Men who had no interests nor 
thought in common and who even are personally and 
intellectually hostile, sat about a common board, drawn 
thither by their agreement in the present crisis of 
French history. One of these was Monsieur Herve, 
editor of a French Socialist newspaper. The Social 
War. Herve's career has been full of high color and 
dramatic incident. Some called him anarchist. Still 
more declared him unpatriotic. He served a long term 
in prison as a result of his agitations. Nevertheless, it 
appears to be reasonably probable that Monsieur 
Herve does voice the feelings of a certain element of 
Parisians. 

The following conversation took place in the office 
of Monsieur Herve's paper, La Guerre Sociale, one of 
the organs of the French Socialist party. 

"How do French Socialists look on this war. Mon- 
sieur Herve?" I asked. 

"The German Socialists could have prevented it," 
said Monsieur Herve. "The French Socialists went to 



FRENCH THOUGHT 313 

the German Socialists and said : 'Let us jump at the 
throats of our respective governments if they take the 
least step toward war.' This was at the SociaHst con- 
gress at Stuttgart, eight years ago. I myself bore the 
message." 

"Well, what did the German Socialists do and say 
to that proposal?" 

"'Oh,' said they, 'we can't do that; we must not do 
that! We can't pledge in advance to oppose our gov- 
ernment if our country goes to war!' They acted as 
if they looked up to the Kaiser as a kind of god ! They 
mustn't do anything that might disturb the dear Kai- 
ser ! That was their attitude ! They didn't say it ; but 
they acted it. So !" And Monsieur Herve put his 
hands together as if in prayer, rolled his eyes upward 
and assumed the attitude of one in frightened appeal. 

The Socialist editor continued : "When the German 
Socialists didn't have the nerve to agree with us to at- 
tack the French or German governments, if either 
made a move toward war, we French Socialists made 
another proposal : 'Let us get rid of all the possible 
causes of trouble.' For, you see, we here in Europe have 
understood for a very long time that the Balkan states 
were bound to make trouble for somebody sooner or 
later. All through the nineteenth century there has been 
a series of wars, revolutions, coup d'etats and what 
not, all due to the same cause, and all pointing in the 
same direction. They have been the fires that have 
welded the peoples of one blood and common ideals 
into states, independent and autonomous. Thus the war 
for the unification of Italy, the coup d'etat which sep- 
arated Sweden and Norway, and the war of 1870-71 



314 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

itself, which brought about the unity of Germany, and 
so on. But the Balkan states were the slowest of all the 
European states to emerge from this fire. They have 
required a great deal of gestating to get shaken down 
to where they belong, and it is not yet finished ; no, not 
by a good deal. But while they were at this nationaliz- 
ing process, that strange patchwork of everything and 
nothing that calls itself the Austrian Empire, with the 
Ottoman Empire the only remaining state in the world 
whose foundations are purely political, and neither ra- 
cial nor intellectual — this politician's paradise was 
deftly absorbing bits of territory which rightfully 
should have belonged to one Balkan state or another, 
and holding them by force. Well, you can't do that, you 
know. It only makes trouble in the long run. It violates 
the principle of nationalism, and every time that princi- 
ple is violated somebody has to pay for it sooner or 
later. When Germany violated the principle of national- 
ism by taking Schleswig and Holstein and Alsace and 
Lorraine, she was in for trouble some day, as she might 
have known. She was due for a bad case of national 
indigestion, just as Austria was due for a bad case of 
national indigestion when she swallowed Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, and just as Russia is in for another un- 
less she lets go of Poland. We pointed these things out 
to the German Socialists. We told them that there was 
trouble ahead for Germany if she insisted on keeping 
Alsace and Lorraine against the will of the inhabitants. 
Not, you understand, that anybody was plotting to 
make Germany trouble over Alsace and Lorraine; but 
just that a great wrong, a violation of a fundamental 



FRENCH THOUGHT 315 

principle of human life, carries its punishment with it. 
And so, too, we told the German Socialists that if 
Germany stuck to her Austrian alliance the upheaval 
which was bound to overtake Austria some day would 
drag them in, just as our Russian alliance was apt to 
drag us into the same trouble, from the other side. So, 
we said, there are two things which must be done if 
the French people and the German people are going 
to get along together on any enduring basis ; first, the 
German people must purge themselves of the wrong 
they have done in respect of Alsace and Lorraine — not 
for our sake, but for theirs ; and second, we must both 
of us get rid of our unnatural and purely political alli- 
ances, which are dangerous because they are founded 
on no lasting principle of human right. 

"For these reasons we said to them, 'You make the 
German government give back Alsace and Lorraine to 
France, and we shall make the French government 
give you colonies in exchange. Then we shall make 
the French government break the Russian alliance, and 
you make the German government break the Austrian 
alliance.' 

"Now that was a fair proposition," went on the So- 
cialist editor. "Yet what do you think those German 
Socialists said? They said it was romantic; that it 
could not be done; that it might require a revolution. 

" 'Well,' we said, 'then go ahead and have your revo- 
lution! There is nothing so terrible in a revo- 
lution — it is better than a long war, anyhow. We 
have done just that many times in France. H the gov- 
ernment will not do it, make the government do it.' 



316 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"And the German Socialists answered : 'Oh ! go 
take a walk ! Go to bed !' 

"And," continued Monsieur Herve, "why did they 
answer our fair proposition by telHng us to 'take a 
walk' or 'go to bed' ? What reason did they give ? 
This : 'It wasn't practical.' 'It couldn't be carried out !' " 

"But what about the war itself?" I suggested. 
"What do French SociaHsts think caused it, and what 
do they think should be done?" 

"Just understand this first," answered Monsieur 
Herve : "although the French are a revolutionary peo- 
ple, as their history proves, and although they — and 
especially the common people — have got their reforms 
by force, by shooting and killing, yet these very com- 
mon people, who now are the French Socialists, are 
against all war, and all force. 

"We have shot men — yes, we admit it. But for 
many years we are the people who have been in favor 
of doing away with all of that sort of thing; we who 
have won our rights by shedding l^lood, are now the 
force that is against any more bloodshed." 

"And the war — the present war?" I intimated. 

"Yes, that's just it. We are making this war against 
Germany to stop all war," declared Monsieur Herve. 
"Germany's fool feudal military caste brought this 
war on. The German Socialists could have stopped it 
if they had wanted to. They wouldn't ; they didn't. So 
the French Socialists are going to stop it. And with it, 
they will go a long way toward stopping war for good 
— all war." 

"How?" I asked. 

"By destroying Germany's military caste, Germany's 



FRENCH THOUGHT 317 

foolish, feudal, military caste, which still is thinking in 
terms of the middle ages !" exclaimed Monsieur Herve. 
"It was Germany's military caste, fuddling around 
with their medieval brains that brought on this hideous 
war. 

"Here, let me show you how true this is," he con- 
tinued. "There was the Morocco affair. Poof! There 
was going to be war. But was there ? There was not ! 
Business interests were involved and the commercial 
men had their say. So business men settled it in a busi- 
ness way. The military, saber-clanking caste had noth- 
ing to do with it. That enraged them. 'Oh !' said they, 
'what are we for if not to settle everything our way, 
which is by force ?' 

"So when the Servian trouble came up, they strode 
forward with their clanking sabers, their silly me- 
dieval brains and they pounded on the table with their 
swords. 'Ho!' said they; 'zvc settle this, our way. li 
not — war!' Well, they got war. I think that they 
were surprised that they did get it, yes and more than 
they want, too ! They thought everybody would give 
in to them. 

"They thought pounding on the table would scare 
everybody!" went on the French Socialist editor. 
"Well, it did not! Instead of giving in to them they 
brought on a war which is going to be the end of them. 
That's what comes of the politics of pounding on the 
table ! 

"This war was caused by the idiotic German military 
caste, with its middle-ages scrap of an intellect, pound- 
ing on the table with a sword, in modern times!" re- 
peated Monsieur Herve with infinite energy. 



318 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"What do French Sociahsts think of the end of the 
war?" I inquired. 

"Oh, the end and the cause are the same," explained 
Monsieur Herve. "Just as Germany's miHtary caste, 
with its sword-rattHng idea brought on this war, so our 
purpose in carrying on the war is to end that medieval, 
miHtary caste, and the whole sword-ratthng idea. So, 
you see, we are fighting for universal peace, and for 
modern ideas, against militarism and medieval ideas." 

"But do you confine all this to Germany? Russia is 
fighting Germany, too; yet Russia is supposed to be 
autocratic and reactionary. Still, autocratic Russia 
and liberal France are both fighting Germany. We 
Americans do not understand that, especially in view 
of what you have said about a military caste. Has 
Russia no military caste?" I suggested. 

"Russia !" blazed forth the Parisian Socialist. "You 
mean our alliance with Russia ? Well, we didn't like it, 
and we don't like it now. As I told you, we proposed 
to the German Socialists that we would make our gov- 
ernment break France's alliance with Russia, if the 
German Socialists would make their government break 
Germany's alliance with Austria. So far as that is 
concerned, don't forget that we, the French, have got 
the Germans to thank for that Russian alliance, any- 
how; it was the fear of Germany, with her table- 
pounding politics, that forced us to make the Russian 
alliance." 

"But I was merely suggesting, Monsieur Herve, in 
your comment about Germany's military caste, and the 
war being against that, that Russia is supposed to be 
more autocratic than Germany," I observed. 



FRENCH THOUGHT 319 

"Well, Russia is not !" answered Monsieur Herve. 
"Russia is far better prepared for Socialism than Ger- 
many. There is a more liberal spirit in Russia than in 
Germany. Wait until her muzhiks are educated, and 
you will see ! And the end of this war will be a warn- 
ing to any military party that does exist in Russia! 
The end of this war will open the Russians' eyes, I as- 
sure you !" 

"What will be this end of the war you speak of, 
Monsieur Herve?" I asked. 

"The readjustment of Europe, on this principle," 
the French Socialist editor expounded : "All people 
who belong together by blood, ideals and desire, shall 
be put together; nations shall be formed on these 
natural and just lines, instead of on the arbitrary, un- 
natural and sword-forced lines that now exist. Then, 
this being done, let all these nations stay at home and 
attend to their own business — no expansion, no wars, 
no foolish ambitions to cause them. Then the United 
States of Europe, and an international police enforcing 
compulsory arbitration." 

"How would you get that international police?" I 
asked. 

"Why," answered Monsieur Herve, "we have it 
now ! That is what the Allies in this war are — France, 
Russia, England, Servia. And — oh ! yes, Belgium !" 

"And Japan?" I added. 

"Oh, Japan !" exploded Monsieur Herve, rising to 
his feet. "Long live China !" 

"Your plan for readjusting Europe is quite interest- 
ing," I remarked. "Would you explain it in detail? 
The American public will be highly entertained." 



320 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Why, certainly," promptly answered Monsieur 
Herve. "It is quite plain and simple, reasonable and 
just — and not difficult. For example, merely to illus- 
trate the general principle which I have already stated, 
which is that people of common blood and common 
ideas have a right to live together and work out their 
own destinies unmolested by any medieval conjurer. 
Suppose Europe were arranged this way : 

"First, Alsace and Lorraine made part of France, 
because they are part of France. 

"Second, Schleswig returned to Denmark for the 
same reason. 

"Third, the Kingdom of Poland re-established. 

"Fourth, let us divide Austria up — she is no nation. 
Her people are not of common blood; have not iden- 
tical ideals. That part of Austria which is German 
will go to Germany — you see we are fair; that part 
which really is Roumanian will go to Roumania, and 
so on. And, of course, Hungary will be established as 
a separate kingdom by itself. You see the principle — 
put the people together who belong together and then 
let each of them stay at home. This principle will 
work itself out in spite of everything — it is bound to 
work itself out in the end, because it is the natural 
principle." 

"And Turkey?" I suggested. 

"Yes," answered Monsieur Herve. "I was coming 
to Turkey. We shall cut it up into three parts, as it 
ought to be?" 

"What three parts and to whom does each part go?" 

"Why, that's plain!" answered Monsieur Herve. 
"Constantinople and the territory adjacent to Russia 



FRENCH THOUGHT 321 

will go to Russia; Syria will go to France — it adjoins 
our colony there." 

"And what part of Turkey does England get?" I 
asked of this master map maker. 

"Bagdad — the railway and all that portion of Turk- 
ish territory." 

"In this remaking of the modern world, by the prin- 
ciple of the blood unity of peoples, where would 
Algiers, Morocco and the other French colonies or 
possessions come in?" I suggested. 

"Ha!" exploded this voice of French unrest, "they 
were all wrong on principle ! Two years of my term 
in prison was because of my opposition to the policy in 
Morocco. But of course you must understand that 
when I refer to the great principle that people of com- 
mon blood and common ideals have a right to live to- 
gether unmolested, and to work out their own desti- 
nies, I do not apply that principle to peoples whose his- 
tory has not shown that they have any destinies to 
work out, or any conscious intention of working out 
any destiny they may be said to have. This is the case 
with countries like Morocco, Madagascar, Syria and 
so on. They are not going forward at all ; they have 
been going backward for centuries. They can not be 
permitted to keep down the average of the sum of 
human progress for merely sentimental reasons. They 
must be taken in hand and led to the road of progress 
by the countries which are really traveling that road. 
We French Socialists are not quibbling over words ; we 
are sincerely trying to make the world a better world 
for everybody. We have done that with respect to 
Algiers, for example. We showed them the way of 



322 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

progress and then, finally, when they began to get ac- 
customed to the road, we have made the inhabitants 
citizens of France. That is what we must do with the 
people of every country which France governs. There 
is no. other way. And I tell you that this will come in 
a generation." 

"Have you any other plan in your program of inter- 
national rehabilitation?" 

"Yes ; and a very dear one. The Jewish nation must 
be re-established in Palestine." 

"And is that all?" I ventured. 

"All for the present. But, with the principle in 
operation, more will come along the same lines. We 
must cure all the bleeding wounds made by the wars of 
past centuries. We must do it now and for all time. 
If we do not, we shall have to fight the same battle over 
again, for this same end, twenty-five years hence." 



XIII 

WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND: A CONTRAST 

TOWARD the close of the first phase of the 
combat of nations (March, 1915), the quick 
crossing of the Channel brought the student of peoples 
at war face to face with contrasts; conditions in Eng- 
land appeared to be the reverse of those in France and 

Germany. ,i i u 

A picturesque circumstance at once compelled sharp 
comparison. London swarmed with soldiers. For 
every soldier seen on the streets of Paris or Berlin, one 
might count at least an hundred in the British capital. 
Omnibuses and taxicabs were often halted to let 
marching companies go by. Khaki-clad privates with 
their natty caps thronged the streets. No restaurant 
was without several military customers. They were 
seen strolling in all public parks where the people of 
London take the air. The music-halls were never 
without a bevy of officers. 

Too much can not be said in praise of the physical 
appearance of the majority of these British soldiers. 
Perhaps one-half of the thousands of these volun- 
teers, personally studied, were superb examples of 
vigorous and robust manhood. The Scotch especially 
were magnificent specimens. Superior to all in their 

323 



324 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

physical fitness, vitality and bearing, were the soldiers 
and officers from Canada, although comparatively few 
of these were seen ; most of them, it was said, were not 
at Aldershot or in London. 

At a rough estimate, one would say that at least two- 
thirds, perhaps three- fourths, of all the soldiers and 
officers observed in England during March of 1915 
were excellent military material — this includes the one- 
half of the whole who are exceptionally fine-looking 
men. The remainder were inferior in stature and all 
other evidences of physical strength. But, speaking by 
and large, neither France nor Germany has stronger 
looking men at the front than most of the British 
volunteers. 

It was frankly admitted by well informed English- 
men deeply interested in the war that the officers were 
not well trained. "You couldn't expect anything else, 
could you?" said one of these. "They have not had 
six months' training. But," he added, with cheerful 
optimism, "you will find that they will turn out all 
right." 

The heavy weight of British public opinion heartily 
supported the war. Thoughtful Englishmen of the 
highest consideration, like Viscount Bryce, declared 
that "The British people are united more than they 
ever were united before"* in support of the war. 

Yet it was evident that there were not the compact- 
ness and unity of sentiment or the utter devotion and 
unlimited resolve that marked popular feeling in Ger- 
many and France. Such careful but outspoken con- 
servatives as Lord Newton frankly asserted that "there 
* See Chapter XIV, p. 371. 




Ready for the front. British recruits, their training completed. 

Most of the British soldiers "personally studied were superb 

examples of vigorous and robust manhood." 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 325 

are a large number who do not know what the war really 
means and there are some who actually say that they 
do not see what difference it would make to them even 
if the German Emperor ruled this country"; but Lord 
Newton said that "undoubtedly by far the greatest ma- 
jority support the war."* 

Of many persons interviewed, belonging to the un- 
der strata of the "middle class" and ranging down to 
the "lower class," as the British term describes them, 
few had any clear idea of the reason for Great Brit- 
ain's going to war. 

"Why, sir, we went to war on Belgium's account," 
said one of these. "Belgium !" exclaimed another of 
the group, "we are fighting for ourselves. We can't 
afford to let Germany get to the Channel." Of the 
class here referred to, a barber happened to be the only 
carefully informed one; he had read the diplomatic 
documents with a care worthy of an employee of the 
foreign office and had arrived at the conclusion that : 
"England went into this war to keep Germany from 
being the first Power of Europe — England couldn't 
permit that, sir, could she?" 

But the others were either vague or absurd in their 
ideas of the cause of this greatest armed strife in 
human history or frankly confessed their total igno- 
rance of the whole matter. 

"That German Kaiser was going to come over here 
and rule England," said a cab driver. "You don't 
mean," exclaimed the questioner, "that the German 
Emperor meant to depose King George and ascend the 

* See Chapter XIV, p. 374. 



326 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

British throne himself, do you?" "That's exactly 
what I mean," was the response. 

The keeper of a little shop in the poorer quarter of 
London surmised that : "Money is at the bottom of it, 
sir." A small business man said that he had not been 
able to make up his mind why England went to war, 
but he was sure that she ought not to have done it and 
very emphatic in his "wish that the politicians would 
get through with it." 

The curious fact was generally admitted that the 
middle classes appeared to be unaroused and the so- 
called lower classes divided between those who are sul- 
lenly indifferent and those who are patriotically inter- 
ested.* 

But the aristocracy were eager, united and resolved. 
Never in history has this hereditary class shown its 
valor and patriotic devotion in a more heroic way than 
in the present crisis. Their courage amounts to reck- 
lessness. When one listens to undoubtedly true stories 
of these men's conduct in battle, one almost concludes 
that they regard it as a point of honor to get killed 
"like gentlemen." They are, of course, mostly officers ; 
and it is said that the British private soldier does not 
take kindly to officers from his own class, but follows 
willingly only those from the ranks above him, and not 
even these unless they lead him with a death-inviting 
physical daring. 

Well informed men in England frankly declared 

that the officers of the British army are selected on 

principles almost as aristocratic as those of the German 

army; and it can not be and is not denied that with 

* These inquiries were made in March, 1915. 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 327 

respect to officers, Great Britain's military organization 
is less democratic than that of France. 

Such was one of the dissimilarities between war con- 
ditions in England and those in the two countries 
locked in deadly strife almost within sight of the 
British coast. 

Perhaps the facts set forth in this article are the 
fruits of democracy, although this thought is modified 
hy the reflection that France also is a democracy and 
the French even more democratic than the English. 
Or perhaps the conditions here reported flow from 
British unpreparedness in land forces due to her over- 
preparedness in sea forces ; for Great Britain's mighty 
navy, greater than that of any other two nations com- 
bined, and the water defended location of the United 
Kingdom have justly given the British people a sense 
of security enjoyed by those of no other European 
country. 

But whatever the cause, contrasts and surprises 
everywhere confronted one who stepped across the 
Channel from France and Germany on to English soil, 
toward the close of the first period of the war, March 
of 1915. Antitheses were on every side ; and fixed and 
settled ideas were driven from the mind by the lash of 
hard and remorseless facts. 

Perhaps the labor and industrial situation was the 
most meaningful circumstance that challenged atten- 
tion. 

The first phase of Armageddon was drawing to its 
close. Great Britain was in the eighth month of the 
war. Although she had held but a small fraction of the 
almost four hundred miles of battle line in France, 



328 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

thousands of British soldiers had fallen and hundreds 
of her finest officers had laid down their lives. The 
larger part of her expeditionary force comprising most 
of her disciplined troops and trained leaders had been 
killed, captured or disabled. 

In answer to fervent exhortations and appealing ad- 
vertisements hitherto unknown in warfare, two million 
five hundred thousand British volunteers, it was said, 
had enlisted and were in training — an immense num- 
ber, and yet only about half of the men with whom 
France now holds her battle lines or has, highly 
trained, waiting in reserve depots to join their com- 
rades at the fighting front ; just the same number of 
Germans, it was asserted by some in Germany, who, 
not called to the colors, yet volunteered when hostili- 
ties opened and perhaps one-third of the number that 
Germany has under arms or ready to take the field. 

Yet, popular discontent had raised its many headed 
visage in multitudes of places throughout the United 
Kingdom. The workers on the Clyde had struck. The 
dock laborers at Liverpool had either stopped work or 
threatened to do so. Here, there and yonder, the pro- 
test of the toiler against conditions had flamed up like 
a fire creeping beneath forest leaves and refusing to be 
extinguished. Bitter animosity had arisen. 

The powerful and ably edited London Post, of 
March 10, 1915, avowed that: 

"The behavior of some of our workmen just now 
would justify martial law. . . . Many of them 
only work half the week and idle away the rest of the 
time." 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 329 

An article in the London Times, of March 16, 1915, 
from its special correspondent from Sunderland en- 
titled Shipyard Shirkers, thus stated the situation : 

''The pride of Sunderland [Clyde] is its claim to be 
the biggest shipbuilding town in the world; the shame 
of Sunderland is its large body of shirkers, and that 
shame is paraded openly and almost ostentatiously in 
the main street of the town. At 10 o'clock in the 
morning there are hundreds of men, hands in pockets, 
slouching idly along in little groups, standing talking at 
street corners, most of them smoking — many of them 
able-bodied men of military age." 

This article declared that : 

"It is a common thing for men to be away three days 
each week. . . . Most employers and several 
workingmen attribute the absenteeism to drink. . . . 
But absenteeism is not wholly, or indeed, largely due 
to intemperance. The shirkers who parade the streets 
are a remarkably sober-looking body of men." 

The Daily Mail, of March 8, 1915, asked : 

"How could the employers and their workmen on 
the Clyde and elsewhere allow an industrial dispute to 
develop to the serious and immediate peril of their 
nation in the midst of the most stupendous war the 
world has ever seen ?" 

And it answered its own question by quoting Lord 
Selborne that 



330 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

" 'Those concerned did not in the least appreciate the 
extreme gravity of the crisis.' " 

In an article by "Our Special Correspondent," enti- 
tled, Do We Rcalbe the War? the Tondon Times, of 
March 7, 1915, published this: 

"There seems to be a feeling, shared I don't know 
exactly by whom, that as a nation we are not awake to 
the importance of the life-and-death struggle in which 
we are engaged. . . . What can the French think 
of us — the French who are seeing part of their beloved 
country under the iron heel of the Hun, who are strain- 
ing every nerve to free their land and crush the in- 
vader? It is known that the pack of hounds we im- 
ported into France in order that our British soldiers 
might hunt in their spare time has been put down at 
the request of the French government." 

The Daily Mail, of March 16, 1915, editorially as- 
serted that 

"The workers in the armament factories of this 
country have not, as a whole, realized what this war 
requires of them." 

The labor papers, on the contrary, tigerishly re- 
sented these attacks upon the workers. These journals 
saw in the assaults upon the British laboring man an 
effort to break down the whole Trades Unions system 
and an exploitation of labor by the capitalist classes. 
"This," declared Justice, of March 11, 1915, an organ 
of the Social Democracy, in a signed article, was 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 331 

"The reason why Cabinet Ministers, shareholders, and 
capitaHstic pressmen have commenced this campaign 
of calumny against a body of men who, but a short 
time before, they were united in praising. First it was 
the docker who was lazy, now it is the engineer — 
whose turn will it be next? Not the shareholder, who 
calmly pockets his enhanced dividends, and then pro- 
ceeds to abuse the men who made the dividends." 

Another signed article in this labor paper concerning 
the strike of the engineers on the Clyde said : 

"We find the engineering shops seething with dis- 
content, and it is difficult to say what may yet be the 
outcome." 

These, out of scores of similar quotations on both 
sides of the labor controversy, give some idea of the 
sharpness of the economic strife in Great Britain. 

So very grave did it finally become and so acutely 
was the government embarrassed in conducting the war 
because of shortage of material and equipment, that 
toward the middle of March the most drastic and auto- 
cratic law ever passed by any legislative body in British 
history was enacted. Broadly speaking, this law gave 
the government absolute power to take over and con- 
duct the whole or any part of the industry of Great 
Britain. 

The factories were not turning out proper quanti- 
ties of munitions. Ship-building firms were working 
on private contracts. There had been no general vol- 



332 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

iintary adjustment of manufacturing to changed con- 
ditions as in Germany and France. 

But, while employers were blamed for selfishness 
and profit hunger, the weightiest blows of censure fell 
upon the heads of British laborers. Thus the govern- 
ment armed itself with Czar-like powers of compulsion 
over the entire industry of the United Kingdom. 

The government considered this revolutionary stat- 
ute so necessary that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
Mr. Lloyd-George, assured the House of Commons, 
on March 9, 1915, that "the success of the war de- 
pends upon it." 

Lord Kitchener, from his place is the House of 
Lords, on March 15, told Parliament and the nation 
that the military preparations had "been seriously 
hampered by the failure to obtain sufficient labor and 
by delays in the production of the necessary plants" ; 
and complaining of labor indifference and Trades 
Unions restrictions he grimly declared that the Com- 
mandeering Bill, as this extreme socialistic measure 
was popularly called, was "imperatively necessary." 

The newspapers were swift to see and frank to state 
the profound change which this law wrought in British 
conditions; and justified it only upon the ground of 
deadly emergency. The Daily Mail, of March 10, 
1915, said that the law estabhshed 

"A sort of industrial dictatorship," but welcomed it 
"because it depends very largely on the capacities of 
British industrialism whether this war is to end in a 
speedy and decisive victory." 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 333 

The Daily Express, of March 10, 1915, asserted 

"The new bill is, of course, State Socialism. That 
must be accepted.'' 

And the Times, of March 11, 1915, announced that: 

"When the Government come to ParHament and de- 
clare that this step is necessary for the successful pros- 
ecution of the war there can be no question of refusing 
the powers for which they ask." 

Because the debate disclosed remissness on the part 
of the manufacturers and the law gave autocratic con- 
trol of them, the Morning Post, of March 10, 1915, 
after a long comparison of the conduct of working 
men and manufacturers, demanded that: 

"If there are to be powers to deal with 'refractory 
manufacturers,' let us have powers also to deal with 
refractory workmen." 

The Star, of March 10, 1915, stated that the "tre- 
mendous powers" of the Commandeering Bill "make 
the Government absolute dictators in the industrial 
field." 

The Daily Express, of March 13, 1915, in discussing 
another subject, announced that : "Parliamentary gov- 
ernment has temporarily come to an end in Great 
Britain." 

The same paper, on the same date, in an unusually 
brilliant editorial leader, affirmed that : 



334 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"It is one of history's little ironies that a Radical 
government, pledged to a complete trust in the people, 
should have been compelled by the force of circum- 
stances to take away from the people practically all 
the liberties won by turbulent barons, village Hamp- 
dens, and proletarian agitators. Under the Defense 
of the Realm Act, the Executive's power is absolute. 
. . . The power of the British Cabinet at this mo- 
ment is far less qualified than the power of the Czar 
has ever been in Russia. ... At a moment of un- 
precedented danger the nation has shown a complete 
trust in the government by dowering it with despotic 
authority. The nation has trusted the government, 
but the government shows quite clearly that it does not 
trust the nation." 

At a large labor meeting personally attended, follow- 
ing the first debate in Parliament upon the Comman- 
deering Bill, bitter denunciations of the government 
were heard. The manufacturers, the ship owners, the 
dealers in life's necessities, were, declared the speakers, 
using the war to squeeze blood money from the people 
by an unconscionable raising of prices. One orator as- 
serted that certain high members of the government 
were personally sharing these wicked profits. 

At this labor meeting not one warm word was ut- 
tered in support of the war. But all demanded that 
the principles of the Commandeering Bill should be 
applied to food and fuel in order to relieve the distress 
of the people; if the government, said the}', is to take 
over factories and docks, and to compel labor to toil 
unreasonablv in order that munitions of war shall be 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 335 

furnished, let the government also take over food 
stuffs and compel dealers and carriers to sell reason- 
ably for the provisioning of the poor. 

Leaflets and pamphlets were distributed, filled with 
astounding figures showing the rise of prices and de- 
manding government intervention. A pamphlet enti- 
tled ''Why Starve f" showed that bread had risen since 
the outbreak of the war from five pence for a four- 
pound loaf to seven and one-half pence and was still 
going up; and while the price of all meat had risen 
sharply, that consumed by the common people had 
increased enormously. "The best parts of British beef 
and mutton have gone up only an average of seven per 
cent., whereas the cheaper parts, which the poorer peo- 
ple buy, have risen twenty-two per cent," declared this 
striking pamphlet. 

Similar soaring of prices was shown in other neces- 
saries of life, the conclusion being, said this appeal, 
that: 

"It is just as important that, in a state of war, the 
provisioning of the people should be undertaken as a 
national responsibility as that soldiers should be well 
looked after. . . . National organization of agri- 
culture and national control of the foodstuffs produced, 
together with the means of transit used in the interests 
of people in peace as it is now used for military pur- 
poses in war — these are the lines which must be fol- 
lowed." 

A leaflet distributed by the thousand entitled TJic 
Enemy Within Our Gates, asserted that : 



336 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"War, with all its horrors, sufferings and sacrifices, 
is regarded by certain people in our midst as affording 
a special opportunity for plundering their fellow coun- 
trymen. Ship owner, colliery owner, coal merchant, 
flour merchant, corn speculator — ^patriots all ! — seek to 
make huge profits out of our necessities" ; and gave 
comparative prices showing that bread, corn, coal 
(cheaper qualities), meat (cheapest qualities), had al- 
most doubled in price since Great Britain drew the 
sword. 

The leaflet said that one result of the British navy's 
clearing the seas of German shipping was that : 

"Ship-owners are thus free to increase freights one 
hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred 
and EVEN FIVE hundred per cent.";* and demanded 
that "The government must take over the supply of 
food and fuel and the means of transport, and must 
administer that supply for the benefit of the people." 

It closed with an appeal for organization "to force 
the government to act speedily in the interest of the 
whole people and to put a stop to this robbery by a 
gang of profit-mongers trading on the necessities of 
the poor." 

"Oh ! They amount to nothing," said one of the 
most powerful men in England when told of this labor 
meeting. On the contrary : "But you noticed that the 
chairman was a member of Parliament, that the repre- 
sentative of the British cooperative stores was one of 
the speakers, and that all of them were trusted repre- 
sentatives of the working classes," remarked a studious 



*The capitals are those of the leaflet. 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 337 

observer when told of this estimate of the insignifi- 
cance of this labor demonstration. 

So familiar had one become, in France and Ger- 
many, with smooth-working efficiency, solidarity of 
sentiment, contentment with economic conditions and 
steel-like resolve, that what was seen, heard and read 
of the labor and industrial situation across the Chan- 
nel startled and surprised. 

Another, though a surface, example of the differ- 
ences in the British situation as compared with that 
existing in France and Germany : London was liter- 
ally plastered with posters appealing for volunteers. 
"Britons ! Your country needs you," in big red letters. 
"The Empire needs men! Australia, Canada, India, 
New Zealand, all answer the call. Helped by the young 
Lions, the old Lion defies its foes. Enlist now !" with 
a striking picture of a roaring lion surrounded by four 
younger ones. "Why aren't you in khaki?" "To the 
women of Britain — some of your men folk are holding 
back on your account. Won't you prove your love for 
your country by persuading them to go?" — so read the 
appeal on one poster to British women. 

These are only a few mild examples of multitudes 
of posters. Many of these contained cleverly worded 
arguments. Others had attractive pictures. Great 
painted signs were attached to large buildings calling 
men "To arms for King and Country," or declaring 
that "Your King and Country needs you. Join the 
army until the war is over." Quotations from the 
speeches of British statesmen were displayed in the 
most conspicuous public places in gigantic crimson let- 
ters. 



338 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Almost every taxicab bore on its front such mottoes 
as "Rally around the flag," "Another half million men 
wanted at once," "Wake up, England! Complete an- 
other half million men." 'Tnlist for duration of the 
war." In the underground rapid transit cars appeared 
such advertisements as this : "England vs. Germany. 
Enter for the great international final. Inlist at once." 

By the middle of March there were signs that such 
devices were palling on the public; and the Times, of 
March 17, 1915, in an earnest leader asked, "what 
steps are being taken to fill the places" of the killed 
and wounded? Referring to the advertising devices 
for the securing of enlistments, this editorial declared 
that : 

"We confess at once that we have not ourselves 
admired some of the expedients already employed. 
Sensational advertisements and indirect compulsion are 
not the methods by which a great people should raise 
their armies." 

In France, on the contrary, no such flaming appeals 
to patriotism were found. A modest request to boys 
under military age and their parents to cooperate 
with the Citizens' Military Committee was the only 
printed inducement to arms to be found in Paris ; even 
this was in plain black type and posted occasionally 
and without ostentatious prominence on a wall here 
and there. And it was answered liberally; unripe 
youth of France were drilling by the thousand. 

In Germany appeared no entreaties of any kind 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 339 

for men to join the colors or for women to support 
the war ; and this was not because, as many in Amer- 
ica erroneously suppose, that all German men are com- 
pelled to bear arms. Hundreds of thousands of Ger- 
man soldiers then and now at the front were and are 
volunteers. 

And Belgium! The greatest surprise in store for 
the American student of peoples at war was the place 
Belgium occupied in British opinion as the cause of 
Great Britain entering the conflict. For the American 
visitor supposed, of course, that Germany's violation 
of Belgian neutrality was the one and only reason for 
Great Britain's drawing the sword. 

Yet a remarkably bold and powerful leading edi- 
torial in the London Times of March 8, 1915, on 
Why We Are At War, declared that : 

"Our honour and our interest must have compelled 
us to join France and Russia, even if Germany had 
scrupulously respected the rights of her small neigh- 
bours. . . . Why did we guarantee the neutrality 
of Belgium? For an imperious reason of self-interest, 
for the reason which has always made us resist the 
establishment of any Great Power over against our 
East Coast. . . . We do not set up to be interna- 
tional Don Quixotes, ready at all times to redress 
wrongs which do us no hurt. . . . Even had Ger- 
many not invaded Belgium, honour and interest would 
have united us with France. We had refused, it is 
true, to give her or Russia any binding pledge up to 
the last moment. We had, however, for many years 
past led both to understand that, if they were unjustly 



340 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

attacked, they might rely upon our aid. This under- 
standing had been the pivot of the European poHcy 
followed by the three Powers. . . . We reverted 
to our historical policy of the balance of power . . . 
for the reasons for which our forefathers adopted it. 
. . . When we subsidized every State in Germany, 
and practically all Europe, in the Great War, we did 
not lavish our gold from love of German or of Aus- 
trian liberty, or out of sheer altruism. No ; we invested 
it for our own safety and our own advantage. . . . 
England is fighting for exactly the same kind of rea- 
sons for which she fought Philip H, Louis XIV, and 
Napoleon. She is fighting the battle of the oppressed, 
it is true, in Belgium and in Serbia. . . . She is 
helping her great Allies to fight in defense of their 
soil and of their homes against the aggressor. . . . 
But she is not fighting primarily for Belgium or for 
Serbia, for France or for Russia. They fill a great 
place in her mind and in her heart. But they come 
second. The first place belongs, and rightly belongs, 
to herself." 

In a brilliant leader of March 17th, the Morning 
Post asserted : 

"This country did not go to war out of pure altru- 
ism, as some people suppose, but because her very ex- 
istence was threatened. A Germany supreme in France 
and the Netherlands must inevitably have destroyed 
the British Empire next. That is what really under- 
lies 'the scrap of paper' and all the talk of 'German 
Militarism!' " 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 341 

Of several thoroughly informed and eminently 
thoughtful men, belonging to the various political par- 
ties, whose names are well known in intellectual Eng- 
land, only one was found who ventured to intimate 
that Great Britain would not have declared war if 
Germany had not violated Belgium's neutrality; and 
even this distinguished Englishman qualified his state- 
ment by saying that "but for this [the violation of 
the Belgian neutrality] England might not have en- 
tered the war" ; for, said he, "The question of whether 
Britain would be safe if an aggressive military power 
acquired a commanding position on the Channel is 
quite another affair. It would doubtless be a grave ^ 
menace to Britain for such a power to absorb Belgium 
and the Northeastern coast of France." 

With this exception, every gentleman conversed with 
said quite frankly that Great Britain would have en- 
tered the conflict regardless of Belgium, although all 
of them emphasized what they called the Belgian "out- 
rage." A composite of the views of these men, liberal 
and conservative, was that Great Britain could not 
afford to see France crushed; or to permit Germany 
to get a foothold on the Channel ; or to allow her^ to 
become strong enough to contest or even question 
Great Britain's mastery of the seas; or that Great 
Britain is committed to the doctrine of "the balance 
of power" which British statesmen first formulated 
and which Germany's growing strength was threaten- 
ing. 

And every one of them said that if Germany is not 
beaten now, "it will be our turn next." Just as in 
France it was agreed that if France had let Germany 



342 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

defeat Russia, "it would have been our turn next," 
so in England the common expression among support- 
ers of the war was that if England had let Germany 
defeat Russia and France, "it would have been our 
turn next." In both England and France it seemed 
to be taken for granted that Germany could beat any 
one of the Allies or, possibly, any two of them com- 
bined; and that the safety of each required the united 
effort of all. 

Thus the consensus of competent opinion was that 
the British government would have plunged into the 
maelstrom of blood even though Belgium had gone 
untouched by German hands. 

Yet, so firmly fixed in the American mind was the 
opinion that Great Britain had declared war solely and 
only because of the violation of Belgian neutrality, 
that the general opinion of instructed men of all par- 
ties in London, that Great Britain would have entered 
the war regardless of the Belgian question, came as 
a distinct and unpleasant shock. 

So while those sincere and powerful men and con- 
summate politicians, Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd- 
George, in their public appeals during the first months 
of the war, gave the Belgian invasion as the one rea- 
son for Great Britain's plunging into Armageddon, 
yet in March, 1915, few could be found who were 
willing to say that this was the exclusive cause of Great 
Britain's action. 

Indeed, it was related that, at the very moment when 
the Liberal government made its fateful decision a 
large number of Liberals were sharply discontented. 
Among these were some important men. So grave, 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 343 

it was declared, was the dissent that three men, 
conspicuous in British poHtics, resigned from the 
government. These were Lord Morely, John Burns 
and Charles Trevelyan. In March, 1915, it was 
openly charged that so extensive was the disaffec- 
tion in the Liberal party when war was decided 
upon, that the government, not being certain that it 
could command sufficient strength within its own 
party, made a deal with the leaders of the compact 
opposition, which was and is hot for the war, to sup- 
port the government in its war measures ; and that in 
return the government agreed to drop all contested 
legislation while the war lasted. 

This meant, it was asserted, that the program of 
Liberal legislation, certainly its most vital parts, to 
which the government and Liberal party were pledged, 
was to be indefinitely postponed. The general terms 
of this agreement were even reduced to writing, it was 
said, in a letter which passed between Mr. Asquith 
for the government and Mr. Bonar Law and Lord 
Lansdowne for the opposition. There are those in 
England who bitterly denounce this as a betrayal of 
the Liberal party by the government; and some un- 
usually bold men openly and acidly say so. 

At the very outset this body of English sentiment 
felt outraged that Sir Edward Grey's "secret diplo- 
macy," as they called it, had pledged the honor of the 
British nation to support France in a war with Ger- 
many without the British people being permitted to 
know anything about it until too late. Neither the 
British people nor even Parliament, said these men, 
were advised of what these men call Sir Edward 



344 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Grey's "secret promise" to France until he announced 
it in the House of Commons on August third, nineteen 
fourteen, when it was impossible to escape its con- 
sequences. 

"Is it not monstrous," exclaimed Charles Trevelyan, 
"that a people are only told on the eve of war that 
they must go into it because a secret agreement made 
long before by a concealed diplomacy has bound the 
honor of a nation to that course?" 

"The Liberal party and the nation were led up to 
the guns blindfolded," declared Bernard Shaw.* 

On the other hand, Sir Edward Grey and his friends 
denied that the British foreign minister made any 
pledge which bound Great Britain. In his historic 
speech of August third Sir Edward Grey told the 
House that in 1906, when questioned as to what Great 
Britain would do in case of war between France and 
Germany, he had expressed only his personal view that 
British public opinion "would have rallied to the mate- 
rial support of France." 

But in pursuance of this and at the request of 
France, asserted the critics of Sir Edward Grey, confer- 
ences followed between the French and British naval 
and military experts for the purpose of making the 
joint military and naval action of France and Great 
Britain effective against Germany in a practical way. 
Out of these Franco-British naval and military confer- 
ences, it was said, came the mutual placing of the 
British and French fleets; so that, when the present 
war burst upon Europe and apparently long before, 
the French fleet was concentrated in the Mediterra- 



♦ See Chapter XV, p. 385. 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 345 

nean, thus releasing the bulk of the British fleet for 
work in the North Sea and the Channel. 

No attempt is here made to go into the merits of 
this controversy. It existed in March, 1915, and the 
fact is here recorded. This dispute was one of many 
circumstances that, even then, pointed toward a cab- 
inet crisis. The discontent of many "war conserva- 
tives" with what they called the government's lack of 
energy, promptness and efficiency was another; and 
there were still others much more serious. 

But it must not be inferred that these British critics 
of Sir Edward Grey and the government do not sup- 
port the war, now that Great Britain is engaged in 
the struggle. They do support the war, though not 
with that savage aggressiveness which marks the utter- 
ance and action of what they call the extreme imperial- 
ists. They say that it was wrong (some of them used 
the expression "infamously wrong") for Sir Edward 
Grey and the government to have created what they 
assert to be conditions which made it inevitable that 
Great Britain would enter the struggle while keeping 
the people in ignorance of the situation; some of them 
vigorously declare that Great Britain ought not to have 
gone to war at all. But now that the die is cast, even 
these men feel that their country must go through 
with it. 

But they are looking to the end of it, and already 
have formed a strong organization advocating certain 
principles to govern the terms of peace and to prevent 
such another catastrophe as the present. This organi- 
zation is known as the Union of Democratic Control. 
Its principles are : 



346 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

First : 

"No province shall be transferred from one govern- 
ment to another without consent by plebiscite of the 
population of such province." 

Second : 

"No Treaty, Arrangement or Understanding shall 
be entered upon in the name of Great Britain without 
the sanction of Parliament. Adequate machinery for 
insuring democratic control of foreign policy shall be 
created." 

Third : 

"The Foreign Policy of Great Britain shall not be 
aimed at creating Alliances for the purpose of main- 
taining the 'Balance of Power,' but shall be directed to 
the establishment of a Concert of Europe and the set- 
ting up of an International Council, whose delibera- 
tions and decisions shall be public." 

Fourth : 

"Great Britain shall propose as part of the Peace 
settlement a plan for the drastic reduction by consent 
of the armaments of all the belligerent Powers, and to 
facilitate that policy shall attempt to secure the general 
nationalization of the manufacture of armaments and 
the control of the export of armaments by one country 
to another." 

This organization is active. Public meetings are 
being held, where effective speakers appeal to the peo- 
ple. Pamphlets are being showered throughout the 
British Islands. Most of them assail the whole system 
of "secret diplomacy," of which they assert that Sir 
Edward Grey and the government's conduct is a calam- 
itous example. One of these pamphlets declares : 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 347 

"The public has been treated as though foreign af- 
fairs were outside — and properly outside — its ken. 
And the public has acquiesced. Every attempt to 
shake its apathy has been violently assailed by spokes- 
men of the Foreign Office in the press. ... At 
the present moment the editorial and news columns of 
some fifty British newspapers echo the views of one 
man, who is thus able to superimpose in permanent 
fashion upon public thought the dead weight of his 
own prejudices or personal aims and intentions, and 
to exercise a potent influence upon the government of 
the day." 

A pamphlet by Arthur Ponsonby, M. P., says that : 

"When war had become a certainty undebated state- 
ments were made to a bewildered and entirely ignorant 
House. Neither in the decisions nor in the policy 
which led to the decisions was there the smallest exer- 
cise of any control by the people or their representa- 
tives." 

Another pamphlet entitled War and the Workers, by 
J. Ramsay MacDonald, M. P., gives the working men's 
view of the war. He thus describes, 

"The hidden currents beneath," which "were flow- 
ing to war. The Entente was brought about in 1904. 
Two years later it resulted in 'military conversations' 
withheld at first from the Cabinet and never revealed 
to the people until the war cloud was low and black 
over their heads. Instantly from every newspaper at 



348 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

the beginning of August the war bugles blew (they 
had been blown by the most influential ones days be- 
fore) ; books which had enjoyed no circulation or 
repute in Germany were sold by hundreds of thou- 
sands;* accounts of how we got into the war, with 
salient facts obscured or left out, in pamphlets and 
leaflets were scattered broadcast." 

As to "militarism" Mr. MacDonald asserts that : 

"What is known as Prussian militarism differs only 
in degree from British militarism. They are all 
strengthened by secret diplomacy, because so long as 
the cleansing light of the sun falls sparingly on 
Foreign Offices, the game of bluff, squeeze and gam- 
bling risk can be carried on." 

A pamphlet on War, the Offspring of Fear, by the 
Honorable Bertrand Russell, states the views of cer- 
tain belligerent countries, in what he declares the war 
to be: 

"A great race conflict, a conflict of Teuton and Slav, 
in which certain other nations, England, France and 
Belgium, have been led into co-operation with the 
Slav." 

In a remarkably lucid review of the underlying 
causes of the war, Mr. Russell writes that "The Aus- 
trians are a highly civilized race, half surrounded by 



* Mr. MacDonald here refers undoubtedly to Bernhardi's book. 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 349 

Slavs in a relatively backward state of culture." He 
calls "Servia a country so barbaric that a man can 
secure the throne by instigating the assassination of 
his predecessor," and asserts that Servia "is engaged 
constantly in fomenting the racial discontent of men 
of the same race who are Austrian subjects. Behind 
Servia stands the all but irresistible power of Russia." 
He maintains that the war on Germany's part is not 
"aggressive in substance, whatever is may be in form. 
In substance it is defensive, the attempt to preserve 
central Europe for a type of civilization indubitably 
higher and of more value to mankind than that of any 
Slav state." 

Mr. Russel thus puts the German case : 
"The Germans could not stand by passively while 
Russia destroyed Austria; honor and interest alike 
made such a course impossible. They were bound by 
their alliance, and they felt convinced that if they were 
passive it would be their turn next to be overrun by 
the Russian hordes." 

As to England, Mr. Russell contends that 
"Fear of the German navy led us to ally ourselves 
with France and Russia." He says that England's 
fears "have had to be carefully nursed." 

In the election of 1910 Mr. Russell testifies that: 
"I came upon a voter who firmly believed that, if 
Liberals won, the Germans would be in the country 
within a fortnight. ... A continuous stream 
of attacks on Germany in newspapers and magazines 
have made men feel the Germans capable of any act 
of sudden brigandage or treacherous attack. 

"Plain men have seen a confirmation of these feel- 



350 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

ings in the violation of Belgium, though every stu- 
dent of strategy has known for many years past that 
this must be an inevitable part of the next Franco- 
German war, and although Sir E. Grey expressly 
stated that if it did not occur he could still not prom- 
ise neutrality." 

A powerfully written pamphlet by Norman Angell 
assails "militarism," but vigorously combats the idea 
of "crushing Germany for good and all." In this bril- 
liant essay is the following passage : 

"The Germans are of all the peoples of Europe the 
most nearly allied to ourselves in race and blood; in 
all the simple and homely things our very language is 
the same— and every time that we speak of house and 
love, father and mother, son and daughter, God and 
man, work and bread, we attest to common origins in 
the deepest and realest things that affect us. Our 
religious history is allied; our political ties have in the 
past been many. Our Royal Family is of German de- 
scent." 

Nor are the above the strongest of the statements. 
Another pamphlet, by H. N. Brailsford, entitled The 
Origins of the Great War, says that : 

"It was our secret naval commitment to France and 
our fatal entanglement through ten years in the strug- 
gle for an European balance of power, which sent our 
fleets to sea. . . . Their [the Servians'] morals and 
their politics belong to the Middle Ages. , . . The 
officers who . . . murdered his queen [when they as- 
sassinated King Alexander] mutilated her corpse, and 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 351 

flung it naked into the streets of Belgrade, gave the 
measure of their own social development. . . . The 
Pan-SIavists have brought the whole of European civ- 
ilization to a test which may come near submerging it, 
in order to accomplish their dream of racial unity." 

After a bold analysis of the cause of the conflict, in 
which he traces the activities of what he calls the "Pan- 
Slavists," Mr. Brailsford makes such remarks as these : 

"We are taking a parochial view of Armageddon if 
we allow ourselves to imagine that it is primarily a 
struggle for the independence of Belgium and the fu- 
ture of France. ... It is, to my mind, an issue so 
barbarous, so remote from any real interest or con- 
cern of our daily life in these islands, that I can only 
marvel at the illusions, and curse the fatality which 
have made us belligerents in this struggle. ... A 
mechanical fatality has forced France into this strug- 
gle, and a comradeship, translated by secret commit- 
ments into a defensive alliance, has brought us into 
the war in her wake. It is no real concern of hers or 
of ours. . . . No call of the blood, no imperious 
calculation of self-interest, no hope for the future of 
mankind requires us to side with Slav against Teuton. 
. . . If we had to make the choice in cold blood, 
most of us would prefer the more tolerant and more 
civilized German influence. . . . Enthusiasts for 
this hateful war may applaud it as an effort to 'destroy 
German militarism'. That is a meaningless phrase."* 

It is not pretended that these quotations give even 
a part of the argument or express the spirit of these 

* Each of these pamphlets quoted from was published by "The 
Union of Democratic Control." 



352 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

extraordinary pamphlets. The notable fact is that 
such statements were made in print under the names 
of reputable Englishmen and scattered broadcast 
throughout the United Kingdom during the close of 
the first period of the war. This fact is here set down 
because it can not be ignored, in drawing the outlines 
of the British situation as it existed in March, 1915, 
and also because of the forcible contrast it presented 
with the state of French or German opinion. 

The critics of the methods by which Great Brit- 
ain was brought to join the Allies were savagely as- 
sailed by at least a part of the popular press. Also, one 
was told time and again that the men voicing these 
opinions "amount to nothing." But so far at least as 
their peace proposals are concerned, for which the 
Union of Democratic Control is agitating, they cer- 
tainly do amount to a great deal. This organization 
and its leaders are making headway in their crusade 
against what they call "secret diplomacy." 

But whatever British public opinion may have been 
heretofore, or may be hereafter, it is certain that in 
March of 1915 most of it was decidedly warlike and 
whetted to a keen edge of bitterness. "The Huns" 
was the term commonly applied to the Germans, and 
this, too, by respectable and important newspapers. 
One favorite description of the Germans was "The 
Pirates." The Daily Express, of March 8, 1915, called 
Germany, "Europe's kitchen wench decked in her mis- 
tress' clothes and trespassing in the drawing-room." 
The warlike voice was loud, clear and savage; those 
who oppose the war were either silent or spoke guard- 
edly in private conversations except here and there 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 353 

where an uncommonly fearless one uttered what -he 
felt. 

While moderate-minded men who heartily support 
the war frowned upon extravagant statements, it 
seemed probable that extreme views were held by great 
numbers of ultra- warlike people. John Bull, a penny 
weekly, said to have immense circulation, voiced this 
popular sentiment in sledgehammer fashion which 
appealed to the bellicose British fancy. John Bull 
declared that the "Kaiser is a lunatic;" it called him 
"The Butcher of Berlin," "that mongrel Attila," "the 
Mad Monarch," "the fiend of hell let loose on civiliza- 
tion," "the foul violator of women, the cowardly mur- 
derer of old men and little children." This penny 
weekly said that the German Emperor will "be known 
to infamy forever as William the Damned" ; and that 
"Nothing short of the personal chastisement of Kaiser 
Wilhelm can appease the justice of high Heaven or 
the righteous wrath of men. No principle of equity 
would be outraged if he were blown from the cannon's 
mouth." 

John Bull stated the reason of Germany's antago- 
nism to Great Britain thus : 

"Controlling the seas and the markets of the world, 
and possessing all the colonies worth having, the Brit- 
ish Empire stood always in the way of outlet for ex- 
panding German trade and population." 

And said John Bull, 

"The mad Kaiser has been scheming and planning 
the overthrow of the British Empire." 



354 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

This popular war periodical assumed, of course, that 
the Allies would soon overwhelm Germany — nothing 
else was thinkable; and John Bull thus editorially 
sketched for the British eye The Glory that Shall Be: 

"This war is to be the precursor of a new era for 
the British race and Empire. . . . The German fleet 
must be swept from the face of the seas. . . . 
No false notions of humanity or of economy must be 
permitted to hinder the work of destruction. . . . 
From the close of this war Germany shall use the 
waterways of the world by the courtesy of Britain." 
And, "When it comes to peace we must assert our- 
selves as the predominant partner. . . . For 
the Huns there can be no readmission to the free com- 
monwealth of Europe. . . . Britain shall re- 
cover her challenged supremacy in the western frater- 
nity of nations. . . . We shall not disarm."'^ 

In an editorial entitled Not a Vestige of the Ger- 
man Empire to he Left, John Bull declared that 
Germany "must be wiped off the map of Europe." In 
still another editorial it described the doom of Ger- 
many and the destiny of Great Britain according to 
the divine plan as follows : 

" 'God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to 
perform' ; and the wonder He is now performing is 
the riddance of Europe, and mankind, of the Teutonic 
menace to His Scheme of Things. That scheme, as 
clearly as human intelligence can comprehend any- 

* The italics are those of the paper. 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 355 

thing, was and is that, for good or ill, He has placed 
the destiny of the Earth in the hands of the Anglo- 
Saxon race, with the Latins as their natural allies. 
All else is accidental, or caprice; it can not affect the 
final order of the world." 

Another penny weekly, The Passing Show, was 
quite as hard on the Emperor as was John Bull. The 
Passing Show assured its readers that the German 
Emperor 

"Is a Mohammedan, a Lutheran and a Roman Cath- 
olic as the humor suits him ; but his taste in neckties is 
vulgar; his mind is that of a third-rate hooligan with 
three strains of madness in his blood. . . . He has 
infected his people to-day with contagious insanity." 

This popular journal avowed that in and near Lon- 
don "are a thousand expectant mothers. They are 
refugee Belgian girls and women. Some of them are 
nuhs; others are girls of sixteen; all of them have been 
ravished by drunken German officers. . . . These 
crimes were arranged, provoked and condoned by the 
Kaiser." 

This paper's conclusion is that 

"The Hohenzollern brood must be exterminated." 
For, "if we leave to a time of peace the question of the 
treatment of the Lord High Hun he will not only get 
off cheaply, but may remain on the throne of Prussia 
and be succeeded by a degenerate cracksman, who is 



356 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

neither gentleman nor sportsman, as some burglars 
have been known to be." 

As to the German Emperor this penny weekly said : 

"If the Kaiser is really insane, let us treat him as a 
criminal lunatic"; but, "If the Kaiser is found to be 
sane, hang him as high as Haman," and Passing Show 
seemed to assume that "we are going to hang six Ger- 
man generals." 

British labor papers struck quite a different chord. 
In an editorial, TJie Atrocious Atrocity Stories, the 
Herald [London] declared that : 

"Tales of the torturing of the wounded, of slit 
wrists and of the mutilation of nuns and school girls 
served well their twofold purpose. They were at one 
and the same time a stimulus to recruiting and the 
gratification of that particular species of lustful insan- 
ity which in times of peace takes its pleasures in 
other and equally infamous forms. But when it was 
discovered that these stories were not only incapable 
of proof, but that the vast majority of them were 
capable of disproof; when there was a provoking ab- 
sence of handless children, searched the mongers never 
so hard; . . . there was a reaction to decent 
silence, but not for long. This time the stories con- 
cern themselves with a wholesale outraging of nuns 
and school girls. . . . Make but your lie in- 
famous and vile enough, and it will be believed. So 
much was proved up to the hilt in the earlier series of 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 357 

stories; so much is being proved in the later. As be- 
fore, every town and village sheltered handless chil- 
dren, so now every convent is supposed to harbor out- 
raged and pregnant nuns. Yet not one solitary case 
of either infamy has been produced that could survive 
the easiest scrutiny, and not one will be produced." 

In March, 1915, there was in England no such solid 
and unbroken certainty of victory as was found in 
either France or Germany. Still, the bulk of British 
opinion was sure and undoubting. "So far as the 
result is concerned, the war is over now," said one of 
the most influential men in the empire. "The Germans 
were beaten when they lost the battle of the Marne," 
he continued. "They themselves knew that then and 
they know it now.* Their defeat will be more de- 
cisive than any in history," The fact that this im- 
portant man was more carefully advised on conditions 
in the various countries at war than most persons in 
England outside of the government entitled his opin- 
ion to very thoughtful consideration. 

"The Allies will win crushingly and quickly," was 
the judgment of a prominent American in a position 
to know the real facts. "The Allies outnumber the 
Germans heavily," he explained; "Great Britain has 
swept German commerce from the seas, bottled up the 
German navy, blockaded Germany's ports and con- 
trols the ocean so completely that it literally is true 
to-day that 'Britannia rules the waves.' Then the 
English have money — they are so rich that they do 
not know how rich they are." 

* This conversation occurred March 15, 1915. 



358 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"Our offensive will end them," said a chance ac- 
quaintance on a train. He was a prosperous English 
business man belonging to the upper strata of the mid- 
dle class. 

"That will begin in May, will it not?" I inquired of 
this commercial strategist. 

"Oh, no!" he answered, "two or three weeks from 
now (March 7) we shall be on the move. May! Why 
we shall have them over the Rhine by May!" 

"Wouldn't you be willing to put it as late as June?" 
I suggested. 

"June !" he exclaimed. "The whole thing will be 
over by June ! Germany will be smashed flat by that 
time. You see," he elucidated, "they have no food. 
There are bread riots now in Berlin. They are dis- 
couraged, too. They know they are beaten. And 
don't forget their working men. They are clamoring 
for peace right now." 

This gentleman did not know his traveling compan- 
ion, nor that his fellow journeyer had just come from 
Germany; he thought that he was giving sound infor- 
mation to an American fellow business man. And he 
was perfectly sure of his facts. Also, there was no 
alloy in his sincerity. So much of his comment is here 
given because it fairly states the belief of Englishmen 
of his class. 

"How long will the war last?" was the question put 
to a cab driver. 

"Not long, sir." 

"Do you think the Allies will win?" 

"Yes, sir. England is sure to win, sir." 

On the contrary, in an uncommonly thoughtful and 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 359 

frank leader the London Post, of March 17, 1915, 
analyzed the situation and, while concluding that the 
Allies will be victorious, said : 

"But we admit that Fate hangs upon a fine edge, and 
there is no certainty in this matter : there is only hope 
and determination. . . , We have just barely 
held our own. ... It must be a long pull, a 
strong pull, and a pull all together if the enemy is to be 
hoisted across the border." 

The London Daily Express, of March 13, 1915, edi- 
torially declared : "We agree that talk of premature 
triumph is absurd." 

One of the cleverest of British public men, who is an 
extremist for the war, toward the end of a long, bril- 
liant and transparently honest review of the whole sub- 
ject wrote : "My own fear is, not that we shall flag In 
the struggle, but that we may, from time to time, get 
out of hand. It may be that we shall be beaten. If 
so, we shall at least have done our best. . . . 
But I do not think that . . . we shall be beaten." 

A private English letter from one whose sons are 
in the army and whose hatred of the Germans is fran- 
tic and unreasoning, and loyalty to Britain passionate 
and exalted, contained the following: "But we are 
so tired of this war. We think of nothing, talk of 
nothing, but peace." 

Yet it is believed that such expressions did not re- 
flect the general feeling; undoubtedly most people in 
England had sturdy faith in the success of the Allies. 
But it was undeniable that doubt did exist in, at least, 



360 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

a few minds and that weariness of the war was affect- 
ing some who were its staunch supporters. 

Another surface contrast of conditions impressed 
with uncanny grotesqueness the observer fresh from 
France and Germany. The greatest war in the whole 
course of human history lacked but four months of 
its first year of carnage; grave editorials penned, one 
might almost say with the heart's blood of the writer, 
so sincere was their appeal, informed the nation that 
its existence was at hazard, and the people that pov- 
erty, humiliation and slavery would be the result of 
defeat ; yet sport and games of all kinds were going on 
as usual. Bitter lashings from press, pulpit and ros- 
trum had not turned the British youth from his favor- 
ite amusements. 

Against loud protests from newspapers and public 
men, England's premier sporting institution, the 
Jockey Club, resolved on March 16th, "that racing 
should be carried out where the local conditions per- 
mit." The Jockey Club's debate filled an entire page 
of the Daily Telegraph. One of the best known peers 
of the realm, in argument for holding the next meet 
as usual, said that, 

"The Russians have been going on racing during 
the whole period of the war, the Belgians had large 
studs in this country and were racing as hard as they 
could, the Grand Duke Nicholas, as has already been 
mentioned at the meeting, ran a greyhound in the 
Waterloo Cup," etc., etc., etc. 

The prevailing opinion was that to discontinue rac- 



WAR CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND 361 

ing for the war would discourage the breeding of fine 
horse-flesh, disappoint the lovers of sport and give the 
Germans the impression that the British people were 
downhearted. 

Still another contrast was the condition of British 
business. It was much better than that of Germany 
and out of all proportion to that of France. The cas- 
ual observer could detect little difference in business 
between that of peace time and that of this hour of 
Great Britain's deadliest emergency. The catch- 
word, "Business as usual," coined by Lloyd-George 
when Great Britain unleashed the dogs of war, seemed 
to entertain the popular fancy. 

At the very moment when the most desperate and 
dramatic efforts were being made to strengthen the 
British army and supply it with equipment, enthusias- 
tic meetings of business men were planning the capture 
of German overseas commerce and devising means for 
taking over the German dye industry. 

While business men acquainted with trade condi- 
tions said that normal business had fallen off, yet their 
claim was plainly true that the volume of British busi- 
ness was greater than that of all the other countries 
at war put together. This, of course, was due to 
Great Britain's lordship of the seas — a notable fact 
which British newspapers and magazines kept well to 
the front. For example, in an able editorial on an- 
other subject the Daily Telegraph said: "We pos- 
sess the control of the sea communications of the 
world;" and again, that "We and not the enemy com- 
mand the seas." 

The above are a few samples of a long catalogue of 



362 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

dissimilarities between British wartime conditions and 
those of the two nations most closely locked in mortal 
combat on the other side of the Channel. It is not the 
purpose of this chapter to explain the reasons for 
these antithetical phenomena, but merely to state their 
existence. Like the other chapters of this book, the 
present one is a bare record of the facts with earnest 
effort to state them in just and truthful proportion. 
To one conclusion they would seem to lead : that the 
history of this war should be penned by some scholar 
who will write not only after time shall have some- 
what cooled the tremendous passions now erupting, 
but also at the greatest possible distance from the 
countries and peoples involved. Perhaps to an Amer- 
ican historian yet unborn will fall the herculean task 
and the immortal achievement of describing for com- 
ing ages the profound causes of this combat of the na- 
tions and of weighing justly its infinite issues. 



XIV 

BRITISH THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR 1 

WHILE it may be said that British pubhc opin- 
ion overwhelmingly supports the war now that 
the Empire is embarked upon the sea of blood, there 
was disagreement, at the close of the war's first phase, 
as to the cause of Great Britain's entering the conflict. 
In France and Germany opinion was found to be un- 
broken as to the reasons which brought each of those 
countries into the struggle. But in England, during 
March, 1915, a sharp division of sentiment appeared 
as to why Great Britain was plunged into this mael- 
strom of death. 

The fact that most informed Englishmen testified 
that Belgium was not the only if indeed it was even 
the chief force that moved the British Empire to de- 
clare war, was as notable as it was surprising to the 
American investigator. This circumstance, hereto- 
fore commented upon, is so important to Americans 
that it deserves repetition. 

There was much and growing controversy over what 
Sir Edward Grey's British critics termed his "secret 
pledge" made to France ten years ago. This, it was 
declared, harnessed the British people to the chariot 
of Mars, without their knowledge or consent. Sir 
Edward Grey's supporters hotly denied that he made 

363 



364 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

what amounted to a "pledge"; his opponents vigor- 
ously reiterated the charge.* 

The maintenance of the principle of the European 
"balance of power," so clearly stated by French public 
men, cropped out everywhere in the talk of informed 
Englishmen as a basic condition which made war in- 
evitable. This principle was upheld by some and at- 
tacked by others. 

The following conversations give Americans some 
glimpses of these disputes. In comparison with the 
solidarity of French and German sentiment the notable 
fact was that controversy existed at all in Great Brit- 
ain. 

As in the other chapters of this volume, the writer 
acts merely as a reporter of facts. No judgment is 
here ventured as to the merits of the British contro- 
versy or as to the verity of the conflicting statements 
which both sides advanced as facts. 

As in the case of the German and French conversa- 
tions, these here reproduced were written out and sub- 
mitted to the gentleman with whom the conversation 
was held; and each of them carefully revised the man- 
uscript for publication. 

A British Statesman's Survey 

One of Great Britain's foremost statesmen gave the 
following bird's-eye view of the events leading up to 
the war and of its possible outcome. At his request 
his name Is withheld. 



* This contention, described in the preceding chapter, is again 
referred to because it is the root of one of the troubles now vex- 
ing British politics. 



BRITISH THOUGHT 365 

"The immediate cause of Great Britain's entrance 
into the war," said this eminent statesman, "was Ger- 
many's violation of Belgian neutrality. If Germany 
had not made that mistake Great Britain would not 
have taken the hostile action she did take so promptly 
and unanimously." 

"It has been suggested that the arrangement made 
on behalf of the British government with the French 
government in 1906 to support France in case of war 
with Germany bound Great Britain to enter the con- 
flict," I remarked. 

"There was no such arrangement, nor any kind 
of an arrangement binding Great Britain. You prob- 
ably refer to a verbal statement of a responsible min- 
ister as to what he thought British public opinion 
would demand in such a case. But Great Britain 
made no binding arrangement, or indeed any kind of 
an understanding which tied Great Britain to any 
course of action;" and I was referred to the speech of 
Sir Edward Grey in the House of Commons August 
3, 1914, in which the British Foreign Minister care- 
fully explained his now much-discussed statement to 
the French Ambassador ten years ago. 

"Then the support of France in the war had noth- 
ing to do with Great Britain's part in the struggle? 
The sole cause was the violation of Belgium's neutral- 
ity?" I inquired. 

"Not the sole cause; the immediate cause. Of 
course, back of the Belgian outrage was the desire of 
a large part of the British people to aid France in any 
war of aggression against her. We did not wish to 
see France crushed, nor indeed could we afford to 



366 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

permit her destruction. And this suggests the real 
source of the war, which was Germany's settled policy 
and fixed determination to become the predominant 
Power of Europe — the mistress of Europe." 

"The average American does not see how the ambi- 
tion of any nation to become what is called 'the first 
Power' hurts in a practical way the people of any other 
country. What practical disadvantage to the plain peo- 
ple of any country is there in some other country claim- 
ing to be 'the first Power' ?" I inquired. 

"The answer to that arouses one's emotions. Lib- 
erty is something, after all, is it not? If one country 
becomes the predominant Power, the affairs of another 
country would be ordered according to the will of that 
predominant Power. Such a thing is not to be thought 
of; certainl}^ not to be submitted to. No Power should 
become predominant ; and when any Power takes steps 
to secure such a position it should be opposed. And 
when, as one of those steps, such power is proceeding 
to crush out of existence a neighboring nation, it 
should be resisted to the uttermost. That was the 
situation which confronted the world in August — 
Germany securing predominance by force and, in do- 
ing so, proceeding to destroy France. Could there 
be a greater cause than that for Great Britain's inter- 
ference ?" 

"Then Belgium's plight was not the controlling 
cause of England's participation in the war?" I ob- 
served. 

"It was the cause that moved the British nation to 
action. A democracy must have its heart stirred; a 
democracy acts through an appeal to its emotions even 



BRITISH THOUGHT 367 

more than to its reason. Germany's smashing of Bel- 
gium made that appeal to the heart of the British 
people. It aroused them. Although not the deep 
cause of England's action, yet the Belgian matter 
made that action possible and indeed compelled it." 

"Was this support of France and opposition to Ger- 
many's ambitions another example of upholding the 
principle of the equilibrium of Europe, which, it has 
been stated, is Great Britain's traditional policy?" I 
inquired. "It has been said by many writers, and ap- 
pears to be sustained by history, that Great Britain, as 
a matter of protecting her vital interests, always has 
opposed any continental nation which at that particu- 
lar time was strongest, and seemed likely, if unop- 
posed, to become the predominant Power. 

"Yes; of course, we always did that; our situation 
demands it. And so does the welfare of Europe." 

"It has been stated and published that Germany 
asked Great Britain to stop Russia mobilizing against 
Germany, and that if Great Britain had done this, it 
would have prevented the war," I suggested. 

"Such a request was absurd! How could Great 
Britain make such a request of Russia? It meant 
telling Russia to submit to 'shining armor' as in 1909." 

"What of the outcome of the war? How will it 
end?" 

"It is a hard struggle. We shall stick it out, how- 
ever, that is certain. The British nation has awak- 
ened to the situation now. I think it reasonable to 
conclude that, in the end, this means victory for us." 

"Assuming that the Allies are successful, what terms 
will you impose on Germany? Since this is a democ- 



368 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

racy, as you have suggested, there must be some 
thought forming in the mind of the people as to what 
shall be done after you have won." 

"The restoration of Belgium would be one thing 
that may be spoken of as a certainty. Then, of course, 
all of us hope that some arrangement will be made 
which will prevent any such war as this in future. 
Perhaps that might mean democracy in Germany. At 
all events, the aggressive military system of Germany 
should be broken up." 

"How would that be done?" I asked. 

"That can not be thought out; it must come as a 
consequence." 

"I have heard many speak of the dismemberment 
of the German Empire as one method of breaking Ger- 
many's military power; indeed, it seems to be in the 
mind of the man in the street," I observed. 

"It is hard to force a constitution on a people, isn't 
it? They must arrange their own government to suit 
themselves. Still, we hope that something like that — 
a democracy in Germany — will commend itself to the 
German people." 

British Scholar, Philosopher and Legislator 

Viscount Bryce, known to every one in the United 
States as the author of The American Common- 
wealth, and as one of the most popular ambassadors 
ever accredited to our government from any country, 
was brief and characteristically clear in stating the 
British view of the war. So familiar are Americans 



BRITISH THOUGHT 369 

with this great English scholar, diplomat and states- 
man that no personal description is necessary. 

"England went into this war," said Great Britain's 
author-statesman, "because of Germany's wanton vio- 
lation of Belgium's neutrality, which England no less 
than Germany had guaranteed. But for this England 
might not have entered the war, and it was assuredly 
this cause which produced the unprecedented unanim- 
ity which the British people have shown in prosecuting 
a war which is involving tremendous sacrifices. Then 
the manner in which Germany has conducted the war, 
especially in its cruel treatment of Belgium, aroused 
the British people. The integrity of a small state is 
as important as that of a large one." 

"But it has been suggested that Great Britain did 
not conform to this view in the Boer War, by which 
she absorbed the South African Republic and the 
Orange Free State," I suggested. 

"I was against that war, as you know," replied 
Lord Bryce. "I did not approve of the government's 
policy at that time, and think the same still. Nor do 
I believe it had the general moral support of the Brit- 
ish people. But the present war has this moral sup- 
port as no war in our history ever had before." 

"It has been suggested that at bottom the war was 
caused by the commercial conflict between England 
and Germany. Is it the British view that there are 
economic grounds for the war?" I inquired. 

"Many Germans have said so," replied Lord Bryce. 
"But so far as Great Britain is concerned, it was not 
any commercial or economic interests that brought 



370 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

her into this struggle. She is losing economically far 
more by it than any sane man could have fancied sTie 
could gain." 

"The leading article in yesterday's Times* suggests 
that the real cause of England's attitude in the war is 
England's vital material and political interest, and puts 
this cause of Great Britain's action above the violation 
of Belgian neutrality." 

"I do not agree with that editorial," remarked Lord 
Bryce. "I have no doubt but that the gentleman who 
wrote it believes that he is correct in his statements, 
but I think him quite mistaken." 

"The statement made in the Times leader that Great 
Britain's traditional policy is to oppose any country's 
becoming the predominant Power on the continent -has 
been made elsewhere; and I find it the view of in- 
formed men in several countries. Is not this a phase 
of the principle of the equilibrium of Europe?" 

"There may be persons who take that view, but it 
is not the view of our people," said Lord Bryce. "The 
so-called principle was used to justify many unwise 
wars in past centuries, and I should be very sorry to 
see it recognized now. The question of whether 
Britain would be safe if an aggressive military power 
acquired a commanding position on the Channel is 
quite another affair. It would doubtless be a grave 
menace to Britain were such a power to absorb Bel- 
gium and the northeastern coast of France." 

"In case the Allies are successful in this war, what 
terms will they impose on Germany?" I asked. 

* London Times of March 8, 1915. See Chapter XIII, pp. 339, 
340. This conversation was on March 9, 1915. 



BRITISH THOUGHT 371 

"Certainly the restoration of Belgium and payment 
for the destruction and damage committed in that 
country — that first of all," promptly replied Lord 
Bryce; "and then, of course, also, a resettlement in 
southeastern Europe and western Asia. What else, 
who can now tell? Of course, we all desire some ar- 
rangement which may save Europe from any such war 
in the future. The armed peace of the last few years 
was only less ruinous economically than war is showing 
itself now to be." 

"It has been suggested that the dismemberment of 
the German Empire, so as to put Germany back where 
she was before 1870, would accomplish this." 

"Prophecy is idle at such a moment as this," said 
Lord Bryce; "but if you ask my opinion, I disapprove 
any such idea and can not suppose that any statesman 
seriously thinks of trying to destroy the unity of the 
German nation." 

"Do you feel that the British people are united in 
support of the war?" 

"Yes; more so than ever they were united before," 
earnestly responded Lord Bryce. "Deeply as they 
deplore such a catastrophe and widespread as has been 
the sorrow it has brought to every class in the loss 
of those dearest to them. The educated classes espe- 
cially have been bearing a larger share in effort and 
suffering than in any previous war. For example, 
university teachers and the most promising students, 
men whose intellect and accomplishments are a price- 
less asset of the nation, have nearly all enlisted and 
gone to the front to fight and die for what they regard 
the cause of liberty and civilization. Oxford and 



372 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Cambridge are more than half empty; and the same 
is happening in other universities. To fight for free- 
dom and humanity against Prussian mihtarism is felt 
to be the supreme duty of the moment." 

A Typical Conservative British Peer 

Lord Newton is one of the most independent, 
courageous and outspoken of the British nobility. He 
is a comparatively young man, and his talk, as vigor- 
ous as it is frank, is plain and to the point. His com- 
ments upon the industrial and social conditions are 
particularly illuminating and valuable. Our conver- 
sation took place at Lord Newton's London house 
immediately after the Commandeering Bill had been 
passed, and this, therefore, naturally was the first sub- 
ject discussed. 

"What is the real meaning of the bill just passed 
giving the government power to commandeer manu- 
facturing and other plants for war purposes?" 

"No doubt about it," answered Lord Newton, "some 
of the laboring classes have not been working as hard 
as they might. I do not mean this in criticism of 
them; but the truth is that they do not yet appreciate 
the seriousness of this situation. They see no neces- 
sity of working harder nor longer than usual ; they 
are more interested in a slight increase of wages than 
in the national crisis." 

"But how can this be remedied by the Commandeer- 
ing Bill?" I asked. 

"It is hard to say," said Lord Newton. "The pow- 
ers of the government are purposely left very vague. Of 



BRITISH THOUGHT 2,72> 

course, after all, men can't be forced to work; and the 
result of such an attempt would be especially unfortu- 
nate in time of war. Fighting the enemy and at the 
same time facing violent labor troubles as a result of 
forcing unwilling men to work would be unfortunate. 
This whole unhappy situation is a result of our volun- 
tary system. Many of those who do not volunteer 
as soldiers do not seem to see the necessity of extra 
nor unusual exertion. If we had the universal com- 
pulsory system, as France, Germany and every other 
country now at war has, and as we should have, then 
there would be no refusal to supply the war necessities 
of the nation. Everybody would have to do his part. 
We may have to come to that in the end. I have been 
urging it for a long time." 

"Why should the Commandeering Law cover the 
factories and docks ? Were these concerns not willing 
to do all that they possibly could do?" 

"The law is an emergency war measure, of course," 
Lord Newton replied. "Every resource of the nation 
must be used for the war. There is nothing in the 
charges that factories and other industrial concerns are 
taking advantage of the war to make undue profits. 
The law gives the government the power to remove all 
legal restrictions which might stand in the way of any 
concern turning its whole productive resources to sup- 
plying war materials." 

"I observe that already a certain portion of the la- 
boring classes are asking that the principle of the Com- 
mandeering Law shall be extended to cover foodstuffs 
and other necessities of life and their prices. Do you 
anticipate that this will last after the war is over? 



374 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

May it not be the beginning of a new alignment of 
parties?" 

'T have no doubt," answered Lord Newton, "that 
there will be a great increase in Socialism after the 
war. One can see it beginning now. The men who 
now are going out in the army will not come back with 
the same views." 

"May it not be," I observed, "that men who left 
jobs which they can not get back when the war is over 
and men who had no jobs when they enlisted, having 
found themselves clothed, fed and cared for as return 
for the work they do in war, will insist on the same 
care in return for the work they are willing to do in 
time of peace?" 

"Yes," answered Lord Newton, "that is certainly a 
possibility, and a serious one. As I have said, I think 
it reasonable to expect that the war will bring a strong 
socialistic tendency." 

"What you have said about the working classes not 
being fully awake to the situation suggests this ques- 
tion : Do all the people understand the seriousness of 
this situation; and are the people united in support of 
the war?" 

"Not all of the people, I am sorry to say," answered 
Lord Newton. "There are a large number who do 
not know what the war really means, and there are 
some who really say that they do not see what differ- 
ence it would make to them even if the German Em- 
peror ruled this country. However, it is undoubtedly 
true that by far the greatest majority heartily support 
the war." 

"There has been some dispute as to the real cause of 



BRITISH THOUGHT 375 

England's going into the war. We in America under- 
stood that Germany's invasion of Belgium was the sole 
and only cause," I remarked. 

"Belgium was the technical cause," answered Lord 
Newton. "But another cause was our own self- 
preservation. We simply had to help France. If we 
had allowed Germany to defeat France it would have 
been our turn next." 

"Does not that motive also have its roots far back 
in history? Is it not another example of Great Brit- 
ain's traditional policy first formulated by Pitt, but 
practised by Great Britain long before Pitt's time as 
well as since the Napoleonic period, that Great Britain 
would be against any continental nation which threat- 
ened to become the leading Power of Europe?" 

"Yes; and quite right, too," answered Lord New- 
ton. "The balance-of-power policy is just as neces- 
sary to our safety to-day as ever it was. There are 
those in England who say that the principle of the 
equilibrium of Europe is out of date. But that is not 
true, and this war proves that it is not true." 

"Has there been any suggestion here in England 
that the government could have prevented the war by 
stating in advance, when asked to do so by Russia and 
France, that Great Britain would support those coun- 
tries in case of war with Germany?" 

"Yes, there has been some complaint of Sir Edward 
Grey's indecision," Lord Newton answered. "The 
government did not appear to know its own mind, up 
to the last moment. The Opposition had to tell the 
government that it would see the government through 
the war. Lord Lansdowne and Bonar Law gave them 



376 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

that assurance. Even then some Liberals did not want 
to go in." 

"Were there any conditions for this arrangement 
between the government and the Opposition?" 

"That all contested legislation should be dropped 
until after the war was over; and that both govern- 
ment and Opposition should unite their forces for the 
prosecution of the war, and nothing else," replied Lord 
Newton. 

"Even if Sir Edward Grey had said, in answer to 
Russia and France, that England would join them in 
case of a war with Germany, do you think this would 
have prevented the war?" I asked. 

"Yes, for the time being at least," said Lord New- 
ton. "Certainly it would have postponed it ; I will not 
say that it would have prevented it — but it would have 
postponed it. It is not likely that Germany would 
have risked the war if she had known positively that 
England would have supported France and Russia. 
The truth is that Germany had ground to suppose that 
Great Britain would not go into the war; the attitude 
of the government gave them that ground." 

"But you think, even if postponed, the war would 
not have been prevented?" 

"Probably not," answered Lord Newton. "Ger- 
many has looked upon Great Britain as the great ob- 
stacle to her ambition for many years. When the 
present Emperor ascended the throne the getting of 
a world empire became Germany's policy. That made 
a conflict between Germany and Great Britain inev- 
itable." 



BRITISH THOUGHT Z77 

The Foe of "Secret Diplomacy" 

Mr, Charles Trevelyan, M. P., son of the author of 
The American Revolution, so widely read and greatly 
admired in the United States, and brother of the au- 
thor of the monumental work on Garibaldi and Italy, 
maintains in English public life the brilliancy of his 
father and brother in the field of literature. Mr. 
Trevelyan was one of those who resigned from the 
government at the outbreak of the war, and is 
one of the foremost leaders of the movement now 
under way in Great Britain for the democratization of 
foreign policy. The strong group of men who are 
leading this movement have already made it distinctly 
felt, even in these desperate days when it is hard to 
get men to think of anything except the immediate 
struggle. It seems certain that the idea which these 
men are advocating will grow solidly and rapidly. In- 
deed, it may become the commanding influence in the 
settlement of the war. 

Mr. Trevelyan is a young man of fine ability, and 
is intensely in earnest in his championship of this 
cause. 

"The world has outgrown secret diplomacy," said 
Mr. Trevelyan. "It is the people who are affected 
by these hidden agreements of their governments; why 
then should not the people be consulted ? At least, why 
should they not be informed of what is being done in 
their name?" said Mr. Trevelyan. "We hold agree- 
ments which bind nations, even to the ultimate sacrifice 
of war, should be announced so that the merits of 



378 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

such agreements may be openly discussed, and intelli- 
gent public opinion formed upon them. Then, if public 
opinion sanctions them, well and good ; those who op- 
pose such agreements at least have had the opportunity 
to state their objections and would more willingly abide 
the verdict of the public. 

"Is it not monstrous," exclaimed Mr. Trevelyan, 
"that a people are only told on the eve of war that they 
must go into it because a secret agreement made long- 
before by a concealed diplomacy has bound the honor 
of a nation to that course ? Take our present situation : 
ten years ago. Sir Edward Grey gave as his opinion 
to France that in case of war between Germany and 
France, England would probably enter the conflict in 
support of France. Yet the nation knew nothing what- 
ever of this until Sir Edward Grey admitted it when 
we were on the eve of war. It is not this specific ac- 
tion alone to which we object, but the whole system of 
secret management of foreign affairs, of which it is 
an example." 

"Did this have anything to do with bringing Eng- 
land into the war?" 

"Yes; it had everything to do with it," said Mr. 
Trevelyan. "Indeed, it may be said to have been the 
principal cause of England's final decision." 

"I have heard it said," I remarked, "that the viola- 
tion of Belgian neutrality was the sole cause of Eng- 
land's action." 

"Oh !" exclaimed Mr. Trevelyan, "that was to many 
people the apparent cause. But the support of France 
secretly pledged was the real cause. Everybody has 
known for years that in case of war between France 



BRITISH THOUGHT 379 

and Germany, the latter country would attack France 
through Belgium. Certainly the government knew it. 
Nobody ought to have been surprised when that hap- 
pened, outrageous as it was on Germany's part. But 
the pledge to France, which was kept from the British 
public, bound the honor of the nation to go into this 
war regardless of the violation of Belgian neutrality." 
"Was there no economic cause for the war?" I 
asked. "Did not the commercial rivalry between Eng- 
land and Germany have anything to do with causing 
England to enter the war?" 

"Not so far as the people are concerned," answered 
Mr. Trevelyan. "They would have voted over- 
whelmingly against war with Germany or anybody else, 
on the grounds of trade rivalry. It is not the British 
idea that we can get more trade by crushing somebody's 
else trade. The British idea is exactly the reverse. 
We say that trade creates trade, and that the more 
commerce other nations engage in, the more there will 
be for us; and that all we have to do is to go out and 
get it. You may dismiss from your mind the idea 
that trade rivalry caused England to enter this war, 
so far as the will of the people is concerned." 

"Did the maintenance of the principle of the equi- 
librium of Europe influence Great Britain's action 
in the present international conflict? It has been 
widely stated in many countries that the traditional 
policy of Great Britain to oppose the predominance of 
any nation on the continent is just as vital to British 
interests to-day as it ever has been, and that this tra- 
ditional policy was a decisive factor in determmmg 
Great Britain's conduct last August," I remarked. 



380 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"The so-called principle of the equilibrium of Europe 
is out of date," answered Mr, Trevelyan. "It is an 
inheritance from the past that has no intelligent place 
in present day international arrangements. It is a part 
of that irrational and unmodern diplomatic system 
which the nations have outlived. Do you suppose that 
the people themselves would decide to go to war to 
keep any nation from becoming stronger than some 
other nation on the continent ?" 

"What will be the end of this war?" 

"The end of the war in which the whole human race 
is concerned will be the establishment of certain great 
principles," said Mr. Trevelyan. "These may be 
summed up in this one generalization : the extension 
to foreign affairs of the democratic idea, which con- 
trols our internal affairs. For example, as I have 
stated, we hold that no treaty arrangement or under- 
taking shall be entered upon in the name of Great 
Britain without the sanction of Parliament; and we 
w'ould create adequate machinery for popular control 
of foreign politics. If any Foreign Secretary pro- 
poses or agrees to an arrangement with a representa- 
tive of another nation, let him announce to Parliament 
at once that he has done such a thing or is about 
to do it. 

"Another of our purposes is that alliances shall not 
be created to sustain the so-called balance of power, 
but instead that all our foreign engagements shall be 
directed to securing concerted action between the 
Powers, and the setting up of an international council 
whose deliberations and decisions shall be published, 
with such machinery for securing international agree- 



BRITISH THOUGHT 381 

ment as shall be the guaranty for an abiding peace. 
Instead of grouping certain Powers together by se- 
cret arrangements against certain other Powers, we 
would have all the Powers brought together in an in- 
ternational council. Thus both the cause and the oc- 
casion for most wars would be removed, 

"Still another object of our organization, [The 
Union of Democratic Control] which will affect the 
terms of peace of the present war, and of future 
wars, if indeed it does not prevent future wars, is 
this : that no province shall be transferred from one 
government to another without the consent by plebi- 
scite or otherwise of the population of such province. 
That, you see, is the central idea of your own declara- 
tion of independence — that government can justly 
exist only with the consent of the governed. Also, we 
say that Great Britain shall propose, as a part of the 
peace settlement, a plan for the drastic reduction by 
consent of the armament of all the belligerent Powers, 
and shall attempt to secure the general nationalization 
of the manufacture of armament and the control of 
the export of armament by one country to another. 

"In short, our programme is the application of the 
democratic principle to foreign affairs ; and the estab- 
lishment of the principle of internationalism in place 
of the armament-nursing and war-producing policy of 
the so-called balance of power or the equilibrium of 
Europe," 



XV 

BRITISH THOUGHT BACK OF THE WAR II 

Great Britain's Leading Dramatist 

AMERICANS recognize in Bernard Shaw one of 
^the most brilliant intellects of the English- 
speaking world. His perfect fearlessness in stating 
his views makes one realize that after all there is such 
a thing as intellectual liberty. Timidity in face of 
possible popular disapproval has no place in Bernard 
Shaw's mental or moral make-up. Also there is some- 
thing of the prophet in Mr. Shaw. 

The following conversation with this distinguished 
man states with his characteristic boldness opinions 
which others hold in common with him. What is 
here set down, was written out and laid before Mr. 
Shaw, who revised it with much care. 

"Well," said Mr. Shaw, 'T hear that you have been 
about the world seeing all th^ great ones of this earth." 

"Not all the great ones," I remarked. "What I have 
been trying to do is to get and faithfully to reflect the 
various views of the countries now at war. Perhaps 
it would be a good beginning of this conversation if I 
told you of three hasty talks I have had with cab 
drivers, to-day." 

382 



BRITISH THOUGHT 383 

"That would be interesting," said Mr, Shaw; "what 
did they say?" 

"I asked the first one," said I, "when England was 
going to get through with this war. 'God knows, sir !' 
he answered; 'but I hope soon. It's hard on us cab- 
men.' 'What is it about?' I asked the cabman. 'I'm 
sure I don't know,' he answered. 

"When the second cabman was asked how long the 
war would last, he was quite definite : 'It'll be over by 
the end of April, sir.' 'Why the end of April?' 'Well, 
sir, when Lord Kitchener's army gets after them, 
that'll finish 'em. I have two sons in his army. They 
go to the front next week.' 

"The third cabman was the one who brought me to 
your door. He said he had no idea how long the war 
would last; but hoped it would not be many years. 
When asked : 'What is the war about ?' he exclaimed : 
'You've got me, sir. There's a lot of us asking that 
question.' " 

"There are other people besides the cab drivers who 
are asking the same question," remarked Mr. Shaw. 

"So, Mr, Shaw, while it is a far cry from these cab 
drivers to Bernard Shaw, yet we Americans would 
like to know what you say 'the row is about,' as one 
cab driver put it. What do you think caused it?" I 
inquired. 

"A general fear of one another," answered Mr. 
Shaw. "Everybody was afraid that if he did not de- 
stroy his neighbor, his neighbor would destroy him." 

"The reason which, we Americans have been in- 
formed, caused Great Britain to declare war is the vio- 
lation of Belgian neutrality," I remarked. 



\ 



384 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"That was the formal plea on which we declared 
war," answered Mr. Shaw. "But really the broken 
Treaty of 1839 had nothing to do with it. Plenty of 
treaties have been broken since 1839, by ourselves and 
others, without war. The real reason was Grey had 
secretly pledged us to support France if the Austro- 
German alliance ever came to blows with the Franco- 
Russian alliance. 

"All the European diplomatists had made up their 
minds that an European war between these two com- 
binations was inevitable," continued Mr. Shaw. "Our 
diplomatists decided that we must be in that war. They 
chose our side — the French side — on the ground that 
if the Germans vanquished France and Russia, they 
could vanquish us afterward. 

"So they concerted all the necessary military and 
naval plans and arrangements with the French 
diplomatists. And when the Servian affair brought 
about the war, we were of course bound by these ar- 
rangements." 

"But," I remarked, "I have heard that the Liberal 
party went into power as a peace party. I have been 
told that peace was its central principle." 

"Not exactly," said Mr. Shaw. "When the party 
came into power in 1906 it was divided, and public 
opinion was divided between modern Imperialism and 
the old non-intervention policy of peace, retrenchment 
and reform. The difference was compromised by in- 
cluding three Liberal Imperialists, Asquith, Grey and 
Haldane, in the cabinet. They were reinforced by 
Churchill, a blazing militarist Junker. 

"But the difficulty was that, though these ministers 



BRITISH THOUGHT 385 

were convinced of the necessity of our taking sides in 
the European quarrel, and backing France by arms, 
they would have broken up their party if they had said 
so openly and revealed their entry into the Franco- 
Russian entente. They had even to deny that they 
were committed to war by any secret arrangement." 

"Do you mean that they publicly told a lie?" I ex- 
claimed. 

"Not at all — technically,". Mr. Shaw responded. "Mr. 
Asquith had taken care of that. He insisted on Sir 
Edward Grey asking the French to note particularly 
that the arrangements did not bind us to anything. The 
French, who understand the electioneering exigencies 
of democracy as well as any politicians on earth, 
gravely noted the statement. Thus Mr. Asquith was 
perfectly in order in stating repeatedly that we were 
bound by no secret engagements. And Sir Edward 
Grey confirmed him. 

"That," said Mr. Shaw, "is how the Liberal party 
and the nation were led up to the guns blindfolded." 

"According to that," I remarked, "Germany's viola- 
tion of Belgian neutrality had nothing to do with Eng- 
land's entering the war." 

"Nothing whatever," answered Mr. Shaw, "except 
to furnish Mr. Asquith with a perfectly presentable 
and correct pretext for entering on a war to which he 
was already secretly pledged, Belgium or no Belgium." 

"Of course," continued Mr. Shaw, "the secret ar- 
rangements with France had to come out; but as the 
revelation was accompanied by the announcement that 
we were virtually at war with Germany, the consterna- 
tion and excitement and war fever prevented the Lib- 



386 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

erals from realizing at once how they had been hum- 
bugged — though, by the way, three members of the 
cabinet resigned — and they did not know until some 
months later that they had been sold to the Opposition, 
as well." 

"Sold! How was that?" I observed in surprise. 

"There was not only a secret treaty with France, but 
one with the Opposition as well," answered Mr. Shaw. 
"Mr. Asquith could not be sure that his duped fol- 
lowers would not rebel; and Sir Edward Grey was 
threatened with the opposition of the City to the war. 
When their perplexity was at its height, a handful of 
the most energetic of the younger members of the Op- 
position jumped into automobiles and scurried out 
through the country to collect the Unionist leaders' to 
take advantage of the threatened crisis. 

"When they arrived in London, they proposed a 
deal. The Unionist leaders agreed to supply and more 
than supply any Liberal defection in the House of 
Commons, and to see Grey and Asquith through with 
their war programme. And the quid pro quo was that 
Mr. Asquith should meanwhile drop the Liberal party's 
programme of social and industrial reform legislation. 
This is what was politely announced as a patriotic 
sinking of controversy and the presentation of an 
united front to the Hun. For short, we now call it 
The Truce." 

"But is there any record of this?" I exclaimed. 

"Certainly," replied Mr. Shaw. "A few months 
later Bonar Law let the cat out of the bag by pub- 
lishing the letter in which he and Lord Lansdowne 
gave that pledge to Asquith. The pledge, by the way, 



BRITISH THOUGHT 387 

was to support war on behalf of France — not a word 
about Belgium. At the same time, Churchill was 
boasting loudly of the perfect preparation of the navy, 
and of the accumulation of ammunition which had 
been going on for years before the war. 

"Asquith and Lloyd-George still cling to the pre- 
tense that we should not have gone to war if Belgian 
neutrality had not been violated." went on Mr. Shaw, 
"but Churchill's impetuous Jingoism is far better po- 
litical tactics; for a refusal to go to war after our 
understanding with France would have been an in- 
famous political treachery; and the Unionists are at 
last taking advantage of that opening to hoist the 
government with its own petard." 

"In America," I remarked, "it has been said that 
England was surprised, pained and outraged when 
Germany attacked France through Belgium." 

"Surprised !" said Mr. Shaw. "Why, everybody 
knew for ten years that Germany would march 
through Belgium in case of war with France! There 
were Germany's strategic railways built right up to 
Belgium's frontiers ! What other object could they 
have? There was no secret at all about it! The 
British government long since had taken action ac- 
cordingly. Not only were our fleets disposed and 
stationed according to plans agreed upon in pur- 
suance with Grey's pledge to France, but our govern- 
ment fixed things up with Belgium so that Great 
Britain and France could meet the German attack in 
Belgium, when the war came." 

"But was not this to be done only in case Germany 
first invaded Belgium?" I inquired. 



388 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

"There would have been no occasion to do it in any 
other case. Naturally, if Germany had attacked 
through Alsace, the British army would not have gone 
to Liege. And please note that when England and 
France were about to pledge themselves not to enter 
Belgium, they did so only on condition that Germany 
did not attack through Belgium. 

"In other words, they refused to respect the neutral- 
ity of Belgium unless Germany respected it also. There 
was nothing in these pledges. There never is, because 
international law — as far as there is such a thing — 
admits that a violation of neutrality by one Power 
dispenses all the rest from respecting it. That is why 
I say that neutrality is all nonsense. 

"When the Germans took Brussels," went on Mr. 
Shaw, "they discovered the documents recording the 
negotiations ; and there is now no secret about them. 
You can be as indignant as you like in theory about 
the devastation of Belgium, the innocent victim of all 
the policies and ambitions of her big neighbors; but 
you need not waste any virtuous indignation on the 
technical breach of neutrality." 

"Why this combination against Germany?" I asked. 

"The old story — the balance of power and our com- 
mand of the sea — you know that we regard the sea as 
our private property," replied Mr. Shaw. "Some years 
ago Count Kessler organized an expression of good 
feeling between England and Germany. First came a 
sort of manifesto signed by all the illustrious names in 
Germany, which should be reprinted on every copy of 
Lissauer's Hymn of Hate. It breathed nothing but 
esteem and admiration for the English character and 



BRITISH THOUGHT 389 

the contributions of the Enghsh to culture and science. 
According to it, Germany saw us as a nation of 
Shakespeares, Newtons and Wellingtons. 

"We responded with an equally ecstatic document. 
I remember it very well. As a matter of fact, I drafted 
it; and it may interest you to know why my name did 
not appear among the signatories. The reason was 
that I put into it a test sentence to discover what its 
real political value was. That sentence was to the ef- 
fect that far from regarding the growth of the German 
fleet with suspicion and jealousy, we saw in it only an 
additional bulwark of our common civilization. 

"Well, not a single signature of any political weight 
could we get except on condition that this sentence was 
expunged. Expunged it was accordingly. They were 
rather surprised when I refused to give my name to the 
document I had myself drafted for them; but I had 
tested it for humbug, and it had not passed the test. 

"Since that time," continued Mr. Shaw, "I have 
fully realized that our Imperialists were waiting for 
The Day as much as the Prussian Junkers; and I did 
what I could to urge a change of foreign policy so as 
to avert war; but the Junkers of both countries wanted 
war, and had complete control of diplomacy; so they 
got what they wanted." 

"Is it your opinion that the British people wanted 
war with Germany?" I asked. 

"The people ! Bless you, the people have nothing 
to do with wars," exclaimed Mr. Shaw. "Of course 
they get patriotically indignant when the government 
tells them that this, that or the other Power has basely, 
barbarously and infamously attacked their native land. 



390 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

What else can they do? But if Grey had announced 
a war with France or with Timbuctoo, and an alliance 
with Germany, the people would have reviled the 
French and cheered the Kaiser, and applauded when 
our bands played Deutschland, Deutschland i'tber alles 
along with God Saz'e the King. If you go deeper 
than that the war is not popular, though we know we 
have to go through with it." 

"But, Mr. Shaw, is not Great Britain's action in 
supporting France consistent with her traditional 
policy first formulated by the younger Pitt, of main- 
taining the principle of the equilibrium of Europe, 
which means, as I understand it, that England can not 
permit any one nation on the continent to become the 
predominant Power, and that she must oppose any na- 
tion which is making progress toward such su- 
premacy?" I inquired. 

"Certainly it is," answered Mr. Shaw. 

"And," I went on, "is not the maintenance of this 
principle the best way to prevent European wars. It 
has been so stated." 

"Nonsense!" answered Mr. Shaw. "It is just the 
other way around ! That so-called principle, as it has 
been and now is being applied, is a breeder of wars. 
The sooner Europe does away with that rubbish, the 
better!" 

"What would you suggest in place of it?" I asked. 

"A sensible and open arrangement among the west- 
ern European nations that if any one of them goes to 
war, the others will oppose her," responded Mr. Shaw. 
"Just apply that to the present case. Suppose Great 
Britain had said to France: Tf you make war on Ger- 



BRITISH THOUGHT 391 

many, I shall fight you and support Germany' ; and 
at the same time, said to Germany: Tf you make war 
on France, I shall fight you and support France.' 
Neither one would have made war on the other. And 
suppose this sensible and honorable policy had been 
stated openly and made known to the whole world. 
Then the other western European nations would have 
joined in, and perhaps the United States, also." 

"And Russia?" I inquired. 

"Russia must become the nucleus of an eastern com- 
bination similar to the western one," declared Mr. 
Shaw. "You see, it is quite useless as yet to talk of a 
Parliament of Man, a federation of the world. The 
world is too big an unit to be manageable. Besides, in 
this sort of combination psychological homogeneity is 
essential to stability. The oriental peoples may be ever 
so much better than we are or they may be ever so 
much worse — I shall not beg either question; but the 
fact remains that they are working with different cus- 
toms and traditions, different religions, and with litera- 
tures and languages utterly strange to us. 

"It is not practicable to amalgamate them with us in 
the same supernational organization," continued Mr. 
Shaw. "You can get sufficient psychological homo- 
geneity for practical purposes from, say. San Fran- 
cisco to Warsaw; but if you insist on taking in 
the other hemisphere, you will wreck the whole 
project — in fact, you will not be able to make even 
a beginning. Therefore, with no hostility to Russia, 
and with a very keen sense of the complications in 
which England will be involved by the fact that she is 
in two eastern places, Egypt and India, where she has 



392 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

no business to be, I leave Russia out of the western 
supernational organization, and invite her to make a 
separate supernational unit of the Slav states and the 
Asiatic Powers." 

"Why did your plan make no headway here?" 

"Because," explained Mr. Shaw, "it runs flatly con- 
trary to all the traditions and conceptions of Junker 
diplomacy — Junkerthum, as you know, is just as much 
an English institution as a Prussian one, and is even 
more completely in command of foreign politics here 
than in Berlin. Our diplomacy is centered on what 
the Germans call Einkreisungspolitik — hemming-in 
game. 

"Thus, Germany being strong is dangerous to us; 
therefore hem her in between Russia and France and 
the British navy. America, being strong, is danger- 
ous to us; therefore, hem her in between Japan and 
England and France. Crafty, masterly, isn't it? That 
is the old, insular, British lion for you, at his cunning- 
est and narrowest. 

"But this notion that if you are not in a position to 
eat everybody, they will eat you, though it was all very 
well in the primitive British jungle, means nowadays 
that any nation that adopts it as a policy must even- 
tually force all the other nations to destroy it," went on 
Mr. Shaw. "Anyhow, my policy reduced to practical 
diplomacy, upsets it at every point. My policy in- 
volves guaranteeing Germany against Russia. It in- 
volves guaranteeing America against Japan. It as- 
sumes — I am quite as arrogant as the lion, you may 
observe — that we hold the balance of power, and that 
we can use it to bind the western powers to us and to 



BRITISH THOUGHT 393 

one another, using the fear of Russia which prevails 
in Europe and the fear of Japan which prevails in 
America to gather in the people who will do nothing 
until they are frightened. 

"If we do not do this, what will happen?" asked 
Mr. Shaw, and he answered : "The consolidation I 
propose will be effected, with Britain left out. Have 
you noticed that Germany, even in the throes of war 
with France, is treating her with marked civility, and 
emphasizing at every opportunity that Britain is the 
enemy, and is organizing a raid of barbarians from 
Russia and India for the destruction and confusion 
of western civilization, careless of everything but her 
trade? That is clearly Germany's first step toward 
the organizing of the west against Britain on the one 
hand and Russia on the other. 

"And as long as America feels herself caught be- 
tween the British fleet in the Atlantic and the Japanese 
fleet in the Pacific, the Anglo- Japanese alliance will 
make her uneasy, and will incline her to join any west- 
ern European consolidation that promises to involve 
England in a war on both fronts in the event of her 
falling out with the United States. All this mischief 
can be averted by our exchanging our alliance with 
Japan for an alliance with America, and our alliance 
with Russia for an alliance with Germany. 

"The same bargain would be equally good for 
France. Russia and Japan could then organize the 
east as best they could. They would be strong enough, 
if they refrained from a partition of China, to have no 
fear of us; and we, solid from the Rockies to the Car- 
pathians, would be strong enough to have no fear of 



394 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

them. That is by far the best practicable chance of 
getting" rid of war, which is always due to fear now- 
adays. People do not go to war now like Frederick 
the Great, to get themselves talked about. The risks 
are too big. Get rid of panic, and you break the stick 
with which our militarists drive us to battle." 

"It is a big idea, but is it practical?" 

"It is better, at all events," said Mr. Shaw, "than 
making elaborate secret conspiracies against our neigh- 
bors because we are afraid they will make war on us, 
and then drifting helplessly into war after all, with the 
conspirators piteously protesting that they have striven 
for peace all their lives, like the Kaiser, and Bethmann- 
Hollweg, and Sir Edward Grey. Anyhow, it is the 
only way out I can see ; and I am still waiting for any 
one to point out a better one." 

The Great Canadian Novelist 

Sir Gilbert Parker, whose books are so well known 
to American readers, faithfully reflects prevailing Brit- 
ish opinion, and is a powerful member of the conserva- 
tive party, the members of which are working pa- 
triotically with the Liberals who are in power. The 
views of this brilliant author and politician are typical 
of the great body of British thought, especially among 
the higher classes. 

Sir Gilbert Parker compels one's admiration, con- 
fidence and regard. He is sincerity itself, and his de- 
votion to Great Britain is almost a religion with him. 
He is an admirable example of the men of letters in 
statesmanship which is so notable a feature of British 
public life. 



BRITISH THOUGHT 395 

"I have an idea that men are born with conservative 
or radical tendencies/' said Sir Gilbert. 'Tt is a nat- 
ural state of mind, or rather a condition of tempera- 
ment. Now I speak to you as a conservative. Con- 
servatives believe in a vigorous, constructive foreign 
policy, of which the maintenance of a great navy is 
a vital part. Perhaps, in our intense concern for the 
building up and solidifying of the empire, we have 
sometimes erred in not giving the individual the place 
he deserves, and have not sufficiently pressed social 
reforms, though the record of the Conservative Party 
in that direction is still a very good one. 

"On the whole, and speaking roughly, the theory of 
the conservative is, the nation and its welfare first and 
the individual afterward; the opposing theory is the 
individual altogether first and the nation somewhat 
afterward. So, as a matter not only of policy, but of 
fundamental principle, the Liberal Party which now 
forms the government, has been for peace almost at 
any price. Its opposition to war amounted almost to 
a religious feeling. Day in and day out, the Liberals 
preached peace, disarmament and the w^hole anti-war 
programme. We conservatives thought they were 
wrong; we thought their position endangered our na- 
tional safety ; we saw a great power right at our doors 
engaged upon an ambitious naval programme. It was 
plain to us that Germany meant to outclass us in naval 
power if she could. And what would that great navy 
be for, if not to attack us? 

"But the Liberal Party w-as consistent. When it 
came into power, it at once began to carry into practice 
what it had been preaching. It began a programme of 



396 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

naval reduction; it declared that England, as the first 
naval Power, must set an example which would be fol- 
lowed by other countries, and first of all by Germany. 
But what did Germany do? She instantly replied by 
increasing her naval programme. Still, the Liberal 
Party, then and now in charge of the Government, did 
not cease its efforts ; it proposed to Germany a mutual 
reduction of naval expenditure and armament. What 
was Germany's answer? She would not agree to re- 
duction at all, but said that she would retard her pro- 
gramme of naval construction on certain terms. What 
were those terms? Why, that in case of war between 
Germany and France, Great Britain should abandon 
France to her fate, while Germany should take the 
French colonies. She also proposed that England 
should — by force if necessary — compel France to re- 
main neutral, in case of war between Russia and Ger- 
many only. Even the Liberals could not consent to 
peace on those shameless terms. 

"These are examples of the earnest and extreme ef- 
forts with which the Liberal Party honestly tried to 
carry out its policy of peace. Yet it is this very party 
of peace which, against its central doctrine, is forced 
by events to take up arms in this terrific conflict ! No 
preparations were made for war; there was no stock of 
war munitions, the army was under two hundred thou- 
sand men, while Germany had millions of men trained 
and an enormous reserve of munitions. England is 
manufacturing now twenty times the amount of war 
munitions she was manufacturing last September, and 
yet she has not enough. No nation that intended war 
would have placed itself in this position. These big 



BRITISH THOUGHT 397 

and simple facts, well known to the whole world, prove 
that Great Britain did not want this war; and that so 
far from there being any aggressive plan or attitude 
on her part, the exact reverse was the case." 

"What is the conservative view, then, as to why 
England did go into the war?" I asked. 

"The view of the whole country is that we could 
not in honor abandon France," answered Sir Gil- 
bert. "In any case we could not afford to see her 
crushed. We would not permit it; and Russia 
declared that she would not permit it in 1875. 
France has been guilty of no offense against Ger- 
many since 1870. She has never been prepared to 
attack Germany, and the idea of her being a conqueror 
is ludicrous. Yet she had to arm herself against 
the possibility of Germany attacking her. If she stood 
alone Germany could crush her. It was because of 
this fact that Russia joined with France after the Ger- 
man threat and menace of 1875. From every stand- 
point of material interests we could not permit France 
to be crushed, and Germany with aggressive designs 
to hold the territory on the other side of the English 
Channel. There was no peril from France. She has 
been our friend and neighbor, although we have had 
differences with her in the now remote past. She has 
no designs upon England. She wanted to be left alone. 
But Germany had designs on both France and 
England. She had designs on France to secure 
European territory and oversea dominion. She 
had designs on France to secure a base from 
which to attack Great Britain. That was where 
our material interests came in. But apart from those 



398 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

material interests, England and the world owe France 
too much to permit the heel of a conqueror to be set 
upon her neck for no act of aggression or of hostility 
on the part of France, but simply because she was 
weak. We were in honor bound to see to it that 
France did not become a victim of German Milita- 
rism." 

"Do you say then that Germany made war on 
France simply to secure territory and to attack Eng- 
land?" I inquired. 

"The other consideration of course must be in- 
cluded; that war with Russia inevitably meant war 
with France, whatever Germany's designs on France 
or England were," replied Sir Gilbert. "France was 
bound to support Russia, just as Austria and Italy 
were bound to support Germany, owing to alliances; 
with this difference, however, that Italy was only 
bound to support Germany in a case of aggression 
against her. That was clearly defined. I think that 
France made no such reservation in her alliance with 
Russia. Italy had good reason to suspect Germany of 
aggressive designs, but whatever Russia's faults have 
been, so far she has not shown herself to be an ag- 
gressive power." 

"Why should Germany wish to engage in war with 
any one? She was very prosperous, was she not?" I 
remarked. 

"Not so fully as the world believed," said Sir Gilbert. 
"Her progress in agriculture and industry had been 
enormous. Her export trade has grown prodigiously. 
But, unlike Great Britain, Germany's industries were 



BRITISH THOUGHT 399 

absolutely in the hands of the banks. All Germany's in- 
dustries were practically founded, not upon accumu- 
lated capital or savings, but upon capital provided by 
banking institutions. The burden of taxation, owing 
to immense sums of money spent for military and naval 
purposes, was growing onerous and galling. The 
Junker class were rebellious against the heavy imposi- 
tions placed upon them, and they represented the mili- 
taristic element in the nation. Germany had intended 
to make war for purposes of territorial gain in Eu- 
rope, and for oversea dominions. She had made prep- 
arations over a long number of years for that purpose. 
Her navy had been built at immense cost, out of all pro- 
portion to her needs as a continental power, and could 
only be regarded as an implement of war for world 
power. Germany could not have world power without 
world dominion. World dominion could only be got 
by taking the goods of other people. 

"The time had come when internal pressure and ex- 
ternal opportunity made the fulfilment of Germany's 
designs possible," continued the brilliant British author. 
"She counted on disposing of both Russia and France 
while England stood aloof, and then as the autocrat and 
victor of Europe to pursue her will against this coun- 
try. I was a member of a committee for the promo- 
tion of a better understanding between Germany and 
Great Britain for a number of years. Personally I 
conceived that an alliance and understanding with Ger- 
many was immensely desirable, as we ought to be nat- 
ural allies. On my visits to Germany of late years, 
financial and business men had said to me that Ger- 



400 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

many could not keep spending so enormously on arma- 
ments without reaching the breaking point, and that 
therefore something heroic must take place. That he- 
roic thing, of course, was war, with certain victory 
and immense indemnity and valuable territories, which 
would compensate Germany for all her burdens borne 
and all her financial expenditure endured." 

"Is it British conservative opinion that Germany had 
an absolutely defined aggressive programme?" I in- 
quired. 

"Not British conservative opinion alone," answered 
Sir Gilbert, "but the opinion of the whole country is 
that Germany had an aggressive programme, and it 
was apparent to a great many that she did not try to 
conceal it. Herr von Bethmann-HoUweg, the Imperial 
Chancellor, declared in the Reichstag that the power of 
a nation must be measured by its armaments. Ger- 
many's armament was to make her the predominant 
Power of Europe." 

"But how would the fact that Germany asserted 
that she was the first Power hurt France or England 
or any other country, so far as the welfare of their 
people is concerned? After all, is not this 'first Power' 
idea a matter of national vanity on one side and jeal- 
ousy on the other, rather than of concrete advantage 
to the one and injury to the other?" 

"By no means," answered Sir Gilbert, "it is very con- 
crete indeed ! It means, a very important influence on 
all international arrangements, and it secures the in- 
terests of the dominant Power. It may do much more. 
It may rob others of their interests as Napoleon did." 

"Is it British conservative opinion that Germany 



BRITISH THOUGHT 401 

had a settled policy of acquiring territory by con- 
quest?" I asked. 

"It is not British conservative opinion. It is the 
opinion of all parties now," Sir Gilbert exclaimed. 
"We all know the truth at last. How else could she 
get territory? And she has avowed her intention to 
get it. She willed her 'place in the sun,' as the Ger- 
man expression was. This meant colonies, of course. 
But practically all of the unoccupied places were taken 
by other nations, chiefly by Great Britain and France. 
If Germany had acted before all desirable and unoccu- 
pied territory had been taken up, she would of course 
have secured a portion; but she did not act; she pre- 
ferred to dream, or make war on Denmark, Austria 
and France. 

"And finally," continued the notable British writer, 
"finding herself without any desirable portion of the 
earth in her possession, she developed the idea of tak- 
ing what she wanted by force. On the other hand, 
making war to acquire territory has long since become 
a thing of the past in the intentions of this country. 
You know, for example, that we could have had 
Hawaii and Samoa. We declined them. We could 
have had other places also. But we declined them. 
Whatever other objections there are to Russia, the 
conquest of territory is not one of them. So Germany, 
in these late years, was the one Power which had an 
aggressive policy of territorial acquisition by conquest. 

"For example, by threat to China she received Kiaou 
Chaou. Then she turned to the near East, and di- 
rected her attention to securing a controlling influence 
in Turkey and Asia Minor, with a view to commercial 



402 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

domination from the Germanic States to the Persian 
Gulf. This was to be advanced by the Bagdad rail- 
way enterprise." 

"But what has that to do with the present war?" I 
ventured. 

"It is one of the origins of the present war," Sir 
Gilbert explained. "Go back a little. It is not so very 
long ago that the Balkan States were in a state of 
anarchy and constant disorder, misrule and bloodshed. 
They were all engaged in cutting one another's throats, 
under the suzerainty, tyranny and misrule of Turkey. 
Servia first raised the flag of independence, and then 
came Roumania, and the others. Most of these were 
Slav in blood and sympathy. It became necessary for 
Germany to select one of these states to hold the others 
in check. Bulgaria was chosen, and Germany almost 
succeeded in her purposes when the Balkan League 
was shattered. But Bulgaria was beaten in war, and 
Germany's plans were frustrated for the moment. 
Then came the Servian incident. If Austria, as Ger- 
many's ally, could absorb or dominate Servia, the way 
to Turkey, and ultimately into the Persian Gulf, was 
open, and the coveted territory was hers. Russia 
could not permit the destruction of Servian independ- 
ence. War between Germany and Russia then became 
inevitable, unless one of those Powers gave way. 
Neither would give way, and so war came. Because 
of her alliance with Russia, France necessarily became 
a party. And because we could not afford to see 
France crushed, but far more than all else, because of 
the violation of Belgian neutrality, we went to war." 

"But, from the strict view of British interests, even 



BRITISH THOUGHT 403 

if France were crushed, how would Great Britain be 
injured?" 

"As I have already indicated," Sir Gilbert answered, 
"by the substitution of a great, aggressive, powerful, 
military nation across the Channel from us, in place 
of a peaceful, non-aggressive and non-military nation. 
If Germany had been allowed to crush France, she 
would have annexed territory in the north of France 
along the Channel, and we could not permit that." 

"Do you mean that Germany actually would have 
taken that part of northeastern France, on whose shores 
the ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Le Havre are lo- 
cated?" 

"That much, of course, to say nothing of Bel- 
gium," said Sir Gilbert. "France as a first class Power 
would have ceased to exist." 

"Then," I observed, "England really went to war 
to uphold the principle of the equilibrium of Europe, 
first formulated by Pitt the younger?" 

"Yes ; and in this case that principle was endangered 
in an extreme and exaggerated form," Sir Gilbert ex- 
plained. "For if Germany had succeeded, the balance 
of power in Europe would have been made forever 
impossible." 

"Putting aside for the moment the violation of Bel- 
gian neutrality, was the integrity of Belgium con- 
sidered vital to England ?" I asked. 

"Certainly," said Sir Gilbert. "That part of our 
policy is historic. For centuries, we have been the 
defenders and upholders of the autonomy of Belgium 
and the Netherlands. The maintenance of these small 
states directly opposite our shores was necessary to 



404 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

our safety and general interests. But all Europe agreed 
that their independence was essential to the continental 
equilibrium. We could no more afford, now, to permit 
Belgium to become a part of Germany than to permit 
France to be crushed by that Power." 

*'Are the people of England of this mind. Sir Gil- 
bert?" 

"The people of Great Britain are absolutely united 
in support of the war," answered the author-statesman. 
"The handful against it would be against any war any- 
where." 

"What will the outcome be?" I asked. 

"Does any thoughtful neutral doubt our success?" 
he exclaimed. 

"Assuming that you are victorious, what will you do 
with your victory? What terms of peace will you im- 
pose on Germany?" 

"That," answered Sir Gilbert, "is for the future. It 
is a problem for constructive statesmanship. But I 
may say that at least one thing is absolutely certain : 
we shall destroy Prussian militarism. We hope that 
never again shall the German military system be a 
menace to the peace of Europe and the world!" 

"And just how will the German military system be 
destroyed?" 

"That is not the problem of the moment. We must 
first have victory in the field," declared Sir Gilbert. 

"I have heard it suggested many times by the man 
in the street and others that the dismemberment of the 
German Empire is the one sure method of accomplish- 
ing the result you suggest." 

"The man in the street and the others you refer to 



BRITISH THOUGHT 405 

do not know what they are talking about," Sir Gilbert 
exclaimed. "That is idle chatter," he continued. "Eng- 
land will not dismember Germany, if she is victorious. 
When the time comes, the leaders will find a way to 
accomplish the desired result, which is the annihilation 
of aggressive German militarism. This is the supreme 
object which the whole British people have at heart; 
they will trust their leaders to find the way to do it 
when we have secured victory in the field." 



XVI 

PROBABILITIES 

HOW will the war end? Which side will win? 
These are the questions which most Americans 
are asking. Amid the crash of the most gigantic con- 
flict of all history we quite naturally take little time to 
sound the deep causes of this tremendous struggle of 
peoples; and it is not unreasonable that in the hurry 
of our daily lives we should be content with hasty 
judgment formed from first reports and newspaper 
headlines. So the common query is "Which side will 
come out on top?" And this is answered according 
to the sympathies of the questioner. 

But what economic change is the war bringing 
about? What social and political alterations are hap- 
pening? How will the warring countries pay their 
war debts? Are not these questions also important? 
If so, their possible answer is the object of this chapter. 

The impartial student of conditions who has been 
in three of the warring countries and in two ad- 
joining neutral nations will venture no prediction 
as to which side will be successful, nor as to how 
long the war will last. It might possibly collapse as 
suddenly as it began and two or three months might 
witness the peace congress in session; or it may run 
on for two or three or even four years — some well- 

406 



PROBABILITIES 407 

informed men and careful thinkers in the countries at 
war believe that it will continue for a very long time. 
There are those among the ripest scholars and weight- 
iest minds in Europe, who look for a series of wars. 

Nor will the investigator who has been on the 
ground hazard prophecy as to the war's outcome in 
the sense of which side will triumph ; he finds so many 
conditions that prevent definite judgment and make 
hasty conclusion ridiculous. He feels that at the pres- 
ent time the winner can not be named with certainty. 
One product of the war, however, is being forecast by 
uniform events which have transpired arid are tran- 
spiring among the belligerent peoples. What is here 
set down is to bring this before the American mind. 

It is merely a report of actual conditions and of 
tendencies so plain and powerful that they are noted 
by those in the warring countries who are most un- 
sympathetic with them. Nothing is here stated which 
the most conservative mind in Europe "does not assert 
to be the possible and even the probabk social and 
economic fruits of the war. 

The reader will seriously underestitnate the move- 
ment of which this chapter gives examples if he thinks 
these lines in any sense the mere reflection of the 
writer's opinion only. They are written solely to lay 
before the American people what already has been 
done in the countries at war and what the wisest of 
Europe think, some with terrified reluctance and some 
with eager welcome, will follow; and no judgment is 
here ventured as to whether what is happening and is 
hkely to happen is right or wrong, or will affect man- 
kind well or ill. 



408 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Each step in the neutral investigator's study leads 
to the conclusion that one consequence of the war is 
reasonably probable. No matter which side is trium- 
phant, it is not unlikely that the world will behold in 
the countries at war and indeed in all European coun- 
tries except Russia, an immeasurable advance of dem- 
ocracy, expressed in terms of collectivism. 

Russia is excepted because of the nature of her cul- 
ture, her peculiar mission, and the still comparatively 
uneducated state of her masses. Even Russia may be 
affected by the popular upheaval; but no one can pre- 
dict this with any such likelihood as marks England, 
Germany and France. 

Russia's destiny, speaking by and large, would seem 
to be toward the east. Her peculiar culture is a curi- 
ous yet not inharmonious blending of oriental and oc- 
cidental tendencies and habits of thought. She is a 
mingling of eastern and western civilizations. The 
Asiatic element in her history and development leads 
rather to the evolution of the social ideal by and 
through autocratic direction, than democratic initia- 
tive; and yet in local matters the Russian people are 
self-governing to a degree, the Russian mir being more 
democratic than was the New England Town Meet- 
ing. The Russian psychology is not thoroughly com- 
prehended by western nations. 

As to Russia's position after the war, the only thing 
that can be said with certainty is that if the Allies 
are successful, Russia will be the one great, predom- 
inant military power of the world. No decree of 
peace congress can prevent that result. Russia is a 
world within herself. No force from the outside 



PROBABILITIES 409 

fundamentally affects her notwithstanding surface ap- 
pearances to the contrary. Speaking in terms of cen- 
turies, no obstacle or defeat retards her steady march. 
It is an insecure estimate that includes Russia in a 
forecast of social, political and economic movements 
likely to affect other nations. 

For Russia is peculiar to herself, sufficient unto her- 
self. In religion she is "Holy Russia." In ideals she 
is Slav Russia. In language, she is Russia the unique. 
In population she is Russia the cosmopolitan. In des- 
tiny she is Russia the unknown. But always at bottom 
she is Russia the militant. All these things are said not 
in disparagement of that great empire or its wonderful 
people ; but only to differentiate it and them from the 
other peoples and countries of Europe. It may be that 
the unfolding centuries will show Russia carrying out 
the purposes of Providence and, so, bearing blessings to 
ends of earth which other peoples, at present more de- 
veloped, could not reach. 

But as to England, France and Germany, no such 
reservation is necessary. In all of them a new demo- 
cratic advance is under way already. 

One who has stood within the circle of fire has seen 
many cherished ideas vanish and favorite phrases lose 
their applicability. One of these is that this war is 
a contest between absolutism and democracy. To the 
impartial observer on the ground this generalization 
appears untrue. On the contrary it would seem that 
the mutual ideal allied with a rational individualism 
are the powers that will really triumph and already 
are winning on every French, German and English 
battlefield. 



410 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

Instead of the world witnessing a combat between 
despotism and liberty, the facts would seem to indicate 
that, regardless of the laurels, democratic collectivism 
is being forged in the warring countries by the titanic 
blows of Armageddon, more quickly and more firmly 
than decades of peace have done. The mutual spirit 
already has made a progress which very few ever 
dreamed to be possible. It is not extravagant to say 
that time may show that the war marked the passage 
of an old economic dispensation and the coming of a 
new social and industrial period. 

Just as the Napoleonic wars saw ancient political 
systems disappear in flame and blood, so the present 
conflict may be the labor pains of a new economic 
and governmental era for occidental peoples. Indeed, 
if only the laws already passed and the measures al- 
ready adopted remain in operation after peace stills 
the cannon and sheathes the sword, western Europe 
will have undergone a revolution in that regard. For 
stern necessity has forced the practical application of 
so many hitherto unaccepted theories that almost it 
may be said that the principle of collectivism is con- 
ducting the war. 

It was natural for Germany to take the lead in this, 
since long ago she had made notable progress in this 
direction. Her system of old age pensions, industrial 
insurance, trust management and the like, had shown 
that many scoffed-at doctrines are not only workable 
but beneficial. In Germany the Social Democratic 
party was and is more compact in its organization, 
larger in its numbers, and more practical in its de- 
mands, than in any other country. 



PROBABILITIES 411 

So it surprised nobody when, at the outbreak of the 
war, a law was passed fixing maximum prices on the 
necessaries of Hfe. Then came a measure providing 
for the care of women of the working classes during 
the child-birth period. The next step in this class of 
legislation authorized the government to take over 
basic foodstuffs (paying the owners the maximum 
price therefor) and to distribute the product equally 
among all the people at the lowest possible cost, in no 
case exceeding the maximum price. 

Thus the cornering of life's necessities by speculators 
was effectually prevented. Thus, too, that misery and 
want which the birth of children so often brings in 
the families of working men on the one hand and the 
enfeeblement of the child on the other hand, was over- 
come. In short, economic equality was thus percept- 
ibly advanced and the chasm between wealth and pov- 
erty spanned for the moment, narrow and feeble as 
the bridge may be. 

Such are examples of some of the laws and of their 
effect which the war already has written upon the 
statute books of Germany. Others may be and prob- 
ably will be enacted. A bill is pending providing for 
the insuring against non-employment during the period 
of enforced idleness, the man who is able and willing 
to work but can get no work to do; and it probably 
will be passed if necessary. 

In France the same tendency is observable, although 
fewer laws of the kind here outlined have been passed 
in France than in any of the warring countries. ^ Yet in 
France the Prime Minister, Viviani, is a Socialist, and 
the most eloquent orator in that party since the assas- 



412 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

sination of Jaurez; the Secretary of War, Millirand, 
a man of distinguished ability, has been counted a 
Socialist, although he now is considered a "moderate," 
that is, a conservative-radical. But although few laws 
have been passed such as Germany promptly enacted, 
yet much the same results have been achieved. Just 
how this happens to be the case is difficult to explain. 

Persons who have lived in France for many years 
and whose business it is to study French conditions, 
assert that the government at present is a military dic- 
tatorship under the forms of a parliamentary govern- 
ment and responsible ministry. A plausible explana- 
tion of French political phenomena at the present mo- 
ment is the willingness of French people to do and 
submit to anything which will bring victory on the oiie 
hand and their reluctance to part, in so formal a way 
as by a written law, with their individualistic ideal on 
the other hand. But the upshot of it all is that the 
same movement is conspicuous in France which, by 
definite laws and their practical administration, has set 
up such advanced economic and industrial mile posts 
in Germany. 

In England, the Defense of the Realms act, passed 
at the outbreak of the war, gave the government 
sweeping power; and under it the national authorities 
at once took charge of the railroads. For various rea- 
sons, the factories of this greatest manufacturing na- 
tion on earth did not meet, promptly and abundantly, 
the nation's emergency in producing war materials; 
and a large number of British employees did not re- 
spond to the needs of the time, in length of their 



PROBABILITIES 413 

working hours, application to their tasks, or even will- 
ingness to do urgent labor. 

So, after seven months of the war, conditions forced 
Parliament to enact a law giving the government power 
to commandeer the whole manufacturing and trans- 
porting industry of the United Kingdom — every fac- 
tory, every dock, every shipyard, every acre of vacant 
ground. The British press at once declared that in 
passing this statute Parliament had taken a revolution- 
ary step — some papers bluntly asserted that the com- 
mandeering law is State Socialism. Under it, the 
whole industry of the British Islands may be turned 
from private profit to public service, with compensa- 
tion by the State.* 

The fact that in France and Germany the prices of 
food and fuel had been kept within the reach of the 
masses, while in England these necessaries of life had 
risen until they were almost if not quite beyond the 
reach of the chilled and unnourished hands of the 
poor; the assertion by the masses of the needy that 
individuals and private concerns were making enor- 
mous profits by cornering supplies and raising prices, 
which in some few cases may have been true; and 
finally the passage of the Commandeering Bill, all com- 
bined to give body and force to a popular demand that 
the principles of this measure should be applied to food 
and fuel for the provisioning of the people at home 
as well as to the production of war material for the 
equipment of armies in the field. 

This demand is so strong, the arguments for it so 
potent, that, if war long continues, it is not impossible 

*See Chapter XIII. 



414 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

that the government may be forced to meet it by tak- 
ing measures similar to those long since adopted in 
Germany. As a part of this movement, the proposal 
is making headway that agriculture should be nation- 
alized, just as manufacture already has been national- 
ized for war purposes. Careful observers have thought 
that there are indications that this factor in England is 
silently working for peace ; they say that the conserva- 
tive classes think they see Socialism ahead of them if 
war goes on for long. 

Many Americans will assume, of course, that all 
these war measures will be repealed when the grave 
occasion that forced their enactment no longer exists. 
But this is by no means certain. Government monop- 
oly of foodstuffs probably will be done away with in 
Germany; but maximum prices will be discontinued 
only where it is clear that the common welfare and 
the rebuilding of German business require. It is likely 
that in Germany the other war measures will remain. 
As everybody knows, the government has owned and 
operated the railways for many years in that country 
and many other measures of state helpfulness have 
long been on Germany's statute books. 

Very conservative level-headed English business 
men are inclined to think that government manage- 
ment of British railways will not be relinquished; and 
the great mass of British working men are positive that 
this form of transportation management has come to 
stay. While, of course, government control of indus- 
trial plants established by the Commandeering Bill will 
not be kept up in England, yet there is reason to be- 
lieve that the principle of public control of great busi- 



PROBABILITIES 415 

ness concerns will be retained to an extent which few 
would have ventured to prophesy a year ago. 

Also, the movement for national regulation of prices 
of basic life necessities has had a tremendous impetus 
and will not wholly recede with the coming of peace. 
In fact, the most thoughtful and moderate minded men 
of all parties agree that the social ideal and idea have 
made gigantic strides since Great Britain opened the 
doors of the temple of Janus. 

"If the war should go on for a year longer, the re- 
turn of peace will bring an entire reconstruction of 
English political parties," said one of the most eminent 
and reliable of contemporary British statesmen. "The 
Conservative party of a year ago will have moved up 
to where the Liberal party then stood ; and the Liberal 
party of yesterday will become the Conservative part)^ 
of to-morrow. The Liberal party of the future will be 
distinctly socialistic." 

The laws actually passed in the countries at war and 
others which may be enacted were, and will be, of 
course, forced by a common emergency; but the prin- 
ciple M^hich runs through all of them is government 
control of fundamentals for the common good. They 
are fruits of the community spirit quickly ripened by 
the heated atmosphere of war. Nor will any govern- 
ment, without protest, be able to take that fruit from 
the people after the millions of soldiers go back to the 
plow and the anvil. The common man and especially 
the working man will return from the battlefield to the 
fireside with larger stature than when he was called 
to the colors — with larger stature and clothed with 
larger powers. 



416 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

In Germany this can be seen even now; for at the 
very outset German working men threw themselves into 
the conflict with immense enthusiasm and have done, 
are doing, and will do a large part of the fighting. 
In fact, German scholars, Socialists and business men 
say that Germany could not have waged war as she 
has done without the hearty and whole-souled support 
of German laborers. Doctor Albert Sudekum, leader 
of the German Social Democratic party, asserted* that 
more than one million five hundred thousand German 
Socialists are at the front, many of whom are volun- 
teers. The Socialist and Trades Union Papers go 
regularly to the Socialists and Trades Unionists on the 
battle lines. 

These men are pouring out their blood for the 
Fatherland with such sacrificing devotion that the 
whole nation recognizes its debt to them; and they 
reciprocally recognize the equally heroic services of 
every other class in the German nation. Thus is be- 
ing woven a mutual understanding and appreciation 
which nothing but common danger, suffering, and sac- 
rifice for a common end could produce. The capital- 
ist is fighting side by side with the employee ; the man 
of learning and distinction is the trench companion of 
the farmer; even the Emperor calls the common sol- 
dier "comrade." In short, with the Germans, the bat- 
tlefield has become a hothouse of democracy. 

So, when the war is over, the views of Germany's 
Social Democratic party will receive from other classes 
a respectful consideration not hitherto accorded such 



* January, 1915 ; see "German Thought Back of the War,' 
Chapter VIII. 



PROBABILITIES 417 

men in any country. There will be no light and hasty 
repeal of laws without their consent. And their pro- 
posals will be examined with patient and considerate 
thought fulness; for to their former arguments they 
then will be able to add the convincing one that their 
theories have been tested, accompanied by the persua- 
sive influence of the crimson sacrifice they have made 
without stint on the altar of patriotism. Unless pres- 
ent appearances are utterly deceptive, and war time 
sentiment a mere transient emotion, the careful stu- 
dent of conditions in Germany can not but conclude 
that what is here set down is well recognized by all 
classes of the German people. 

Nor can there be much question that there will be 
a redistribution of legislative power to the end that 
the will of German voters will be more potent in Ger- 
many's law-making bodies. It will not be surprising 
if the Imperial constitution is amended; even conserva- 
tive German business men well versed in Germany's 
political, social and economic system, will not be aston- 
ished if the Bundesrath is considerably changed. 

In all that is proposed, the views of the Emperor 
will be of the greatest possible weight in forming Ger- 
man public opinion if his present unprecedented popu- 
larity continues; for William II is stronger to-day in 
the esteem and confidence of the German people than 
at any time since he ascended the throne. 

Few modern rulers have had more criticism, out- 
spoken, loud-voiced and savage, than William II has 
had in the past, from his own people in his own land ; 
but not many sovereigns in history have had such trust, 
faith and affection as the German Emperor enjoys, at 



418 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

the present moment, from the vast majority of Ger- 
mans in Germany. His ceaseless and toilsome attention 
to his duties ; his whole-hearted devotion to German 
welfare in which is no trace of the alloy of selfish- 
ness; his great ability and immense information; 
his profoundly religious nature — all this and much 
more, which are understood and appreciated in Ger- 
many, will give the Emperor large and command- 
ing moral power with the people (should he retain 
his present hold on the popular heart) on any ques- 
tion the nation may decide in those still and fate- 
ful days that follow the cataclysmic concussions that 
now are rocking the foundations of the world. 

In England, where government control and social 
reform has made no such progress as in Germany, 
the advance of democratic collectivism will be more 
startling and dramatic than in the latter country. 
Great Britain already (March, 1915) is said to have 
two million five hundred thousand volunteers and by 
the coming of autumn a half million more enlistments 
may have been secured. Scores of thousands of these 
young men left their jobs to serve the state; scores of 
thousands of others were unemployed when they en- 
listed. 

When the army is disbanded, what will become of 
the soldier who had a job at the time he enlisted, when 
he goes back and finds his place filled — and it will be 
filled, for it must be remembered that there are more 
laborers in England than there are jobs and that the 
immense majority of British working men have not 
gone to the front. 

Will the returned working man be given his old 



PROBABILITIES 419 

place? If so, what will the man do who finds himself 
thus thrust out of employment? 

And what of the multitude of volunteers who had 
no jobs and come back to enforced idleness and pov- 
erty? They have been paid, fed, clothed, cared for, 
during the war. When they lay aside their uniforms 
and hand over to the government their rifles, may 
they not say something like this : 

"I was willing to fight for the country and the gov- 
ernment cared for me while I was doing it ; now I am 
willing to work for the country and the government 
must care for me while I am doing it. I am not 
willing to starve; I am not willing to see my wife 
and children perish from hunger and cold. If the 
nation could feed, clothe and pay me for the destruc- 
tive work I did for it in time of war, why can it not 
pay, feed and clothe me for the constructive work I 
am anxious to do for it in time of peace?" 

May not such things be said by those who return 
from the fields of blood and find themselves destitute 
and without employment or the reasonable hope of it? 
May not such things be said ! They are being said right 
now, by those who have not gone to the front. 

Of course, such demands will not be granted. But 
there can be little doubt that important social devel- 
opments will grow out of them. For the United King- 
dom even now (March, 1915) is seething with social 
and industrial unrest. Is it unreasonable to surmise 
that agitation will be kindled to a fervid heat when 
peace adds to it the fuel of hundreds of thousands of 
idle men who feel and justly feel that they have offered 
their lives for their country? 



420 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

The case is not the same as that of the soldiers of 
our Civil War. In the first place, they were not discon- 
tented when the war closed ; and, in the next place, our 
country was sparsely peopled (and still is compared 
to European countries), and there then was an abund- 
ance of free land. Our Republic was undeveloped and 
there was employment as well as land for all. 

Great Britain has a somewhat similar though distant 
outlet for England's mass of probable discontent; and 
to this the more optimistic English thinkers look with 
hope and confidence. Such men believe that the dis- 
banding of the army will be followed by a large emi- 
gration of discharged soldiers and their families to 
.Canada and Australia. This forecast is not without 
reason. Canada's admirable immigration propaganda 
will make strong efforts to get just such immigrants. 
Canada's immigration policy and laws, which are the 
best the world ever has seen and the best administered, 
have sought with discriminating care immigrants from 
carefully selected portions of Europe, high preference 
being given to those from the British Islands. 

The employment of labor is not the only nor even 
the largest factor making for the advance of democ- 
racy among the British people. There is another and 
more important one. It is spiritual and intangible. 
Notwithstanding the technical liberty and legal equal- 
ity of rights prevailing in the British Islands, the so- 
cial strata are as distinctly and clearly marked as 
though fixed by law. The war is breaking this up. 

The British farmer, laborer and clerk, now fighting 
in Flanders, will return across the Channel appareled 
with a new dignity. That he will make this manifest 



PROBABILITIES 421 

in political affairs would seem to be only human na- 
ture. 

If it is asked why this will be more true to-day 
than in the period of Great Britain's former wars, 
the answer is, first, that she never in her history put 
into the field anything to compare with the numbers 
she has enlisted for the present war ; second, that most 
of her conflicts since the Napoleonic wars have been 
fought by her professional army; and third, that 
since the Napoleonic period democratic ideas have been 
sown thickly among the masses of the people and that 
now war is ripening them into a fruitage not only of 
laws but of spirit, character and conduct. 

In Germany this democratic spirit was manifest at 
the very beginning. It was illustrated in dramatic 
fashion by the throngs of men not called to the colors 
who demanded to be taken. When the war has passed 
into history, this neglected but picturesque and mean- 
ingful circumstance will make a thrilling chapter in 
the history of this greatest of all wars. 

The democratic spirit in Germany was quickly 
voiced from trench, battery-pit and battlefield. Un- 
countable letters from soldiers at the front expressed 
it; and a multitude of verses written by all sorts and 
conditions of men from blacksmith and bricklayer to 
scientist and writer, gave verbal form to the Ger- 
man poetic instinct. For example, consider the fol- 
lowing lines of a German war poem : 

"The same coat and our rights the same. 
Comrades — forgotten rank and name ; 



422 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

The same wage, and the same bread, 

In sleep and death the selfsame bed, 
For one as for the other." 

Men in England, who are looking ahead, understand 
this change which the war is working on individual 
character. That brilliant journalist, A. G. Gardiner, 
in an essay printed in the London News and Leader 
of February 27th, remarkable for its breadth, fore- 
sight and power, declares that : 

"Whatever the result, the world that will emerge 
when the deluge of blood has subsided will be a world 
that will be new and strange. There will be a chasm 
between us and our past unlike anything else in his- 
tory. It will be as if generations of normal change 
have been swallowed up in the abyss. 

"The old landmarks will have gone ; the things that 
used to seem important will have become negligible; 
social relationships will have been transformed; ideas 
that were infinitely remote will have burgeoned, as 
it were, in a night — nothing will be quite as it used 
to be. Humanity will have opened not a new chap- 
ter, but a new age. It will be like him who looked 
out over 

* ... a universal blank of Nature's works. 
To him expunged and razed :' 

but it will be a blank upon which we shall write the 
future in new terms and in a new language. . . . 
"A new England is coming to birth in the trenches 



PROBABILITIES 423 

of Flanders. The life of three million men, the flower 
of the nation, is being revolutionised. That young 
man who has gone from the plough will not return to 
the plough on the same conditions. He has made a 
discovery. Up to August last he seemed of rather 
less importance than the cattle in the fields, for they 
always were well fed and well stalled ; while his whole 
life had been a struggle with grinding poverty. 

"Suddenly he is exalted high above the cattle. He 
is a person of consequence. The statesman, the squire, 
the parson, the magistrate — all become his suitors. He 
is dressed for the first time in good clothes and good 
boots; he is well fed and well housed; he has pocket 
money; if he has a wife and children, they are better 
off than they ever were before; if he dies their future 
will be assured as it would never have been assured 
had he lived. 

*Tt is all like a miracle. The discovery he has made 
is that when the real emergency comes his life is as 
valuable to the state as any life. And the thought that 
is dawning on him is this: If I am so necessary to 
the state in time of war, the state must be just to me 
in time of peace when I am doing its work no less 
worthily and no less vitally than on the battlefield." 

As to the social and economic revolution which is in 
progress, Mr. Gardiner says : 

"If we had eyes and ears for what is happening 
inside and outside the House we should be startled by 
its significance. Mr. Lloyd-George doubles the income 
tax and the city declares that he should have a duke- 



424 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

dom. The railways are taken over by the state with a 
stroke of the pen, and the state becomes the guarantor 
of banker and trader as well as of the interests of 
three millions of its citizens. We have found that in 
time of crisis the state is everything and private in- 
terest nothing. It will not be without resistance that 
private interest will recover its old dominion over the 
state." 

There is a good deal of just such analysis going 
on in England; not by light-minded persons or agi- 
tators, but by serious thinkers and painstaking stu- 
dents. 

Another circumstance which is impressing the peo- 
ples at war is the efficiency of collective effort, under 
government control and direction. Why, it is asked by 
the private in the ranks, can not individual enterprise 
do the gigantic work essential in war time? Not en- 
tirely because private management is not willing to 
devote itself whole-heartedly to patriotic service; for 
no matter how earnest the wish of individual or cor- 
poration to do the indispensable work, it seems that 
they can not perform with the necessary precision, 
timeliness and power, the mountainous tasks required. 

This is the basic reason why the railroads were taken 
over by the governments of those countries where gov- 
ernment ownership did not already prevail, as in Ger- 
many. 

Most writers and the reading public are interested 
in the dramatic visions of a modern battle; yet the 
organization which prepares for the struggle is more 
wonderful than the thrilling deadliness of the actual 



PROBABILITIES 425 

conflict itself. The witness of a day of battle who 
sees endless trains of ammunition and provision wag- 
ons ; the movements of troops ; the preparation and dis- 
tribution of food for men and provender for horses; 
the immense and intricate arrangements for the care 
of wounded; field hospitals, ambulances, waiting 
trains and, in short, all the details that focus and care 
for masses of men and great numbers of guns at any 
given point in a battle line a hundred miles long — is 
impressed with the tremendous efficiency of the or- 
ganization that makes such gigantic operations possi- 
ble. 

One division of that organization finds the required 
troops and has them on the ground where they are 
needed and when they are needed. This itself is a 
staggering performance. Another section of the great 
organization attends to the roads over which the men 
must march and the guns, ammunition and provisions 
must be hauled — the condition of every yard of high- 
way and crossroads must be accurately known, for a 
single mud hole might mean dangerous delay, and every 
foot of the road to be used, must, if humanly possible, 
be in repair. Still another part of the organization 
must look after the wounded, being prepared for im- 
mense casualties. Yet another division must have con- 
tinually at the front food for hundreds of thousands 
of men and tens of thousands of horses. An auditing 
department must account for every cent of the enor- 
mous expenditures.* 

And these are only examples. Yet all these parts 
of one vast organization work in perfect harmony, 
smoothly and without friction, promptly and without 



* See Chapter IV, pp. 104-109. 



426 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

waste of time and effort. The men at the head of 
its various sections are gifted by nature with executive 
ability, and practice has made them experts. They 
have been tried out by experience and their final se- 
lection has been made upon tested merit. And they 
find satisfaction and even pleasure in doing well their 
herculean tasks. Yet they are servants of the state ; 
their financial reward is insignificant, almost infinitesi- 
mal compared with the salaries paid by private enter- 
prise to men who do not perform a fraction of the 
labor done by these government agents. 

If one will extend the illustration of military effi- 
ciency in battle to other lines of public effort less vivid 
but quite as large and difficult, one will see why the 
peoples now at war are getting object lessons in gov-- 
ernment administration of big affairs — object lessons 
so towering that the dullest common soldier can not 
fail to see them and does not fail to see them. 

It is not unthinkable, therefore, that when the war is 
over, the common man, thus taught in war time, will de- 
mand the application of the same methods to great in- 
dustries which affect the public welfare in peace time; 
and this, too, not alone upon the ground of efficiency 
and economy, but even more largely as a matter of 
making great industrial concerns public profit-earning 
enterprises instead of private profit-earning enter- 
prises. 

A very large circumstance will give uncommon 
power to this movement. Indeed, it will be the strong- 
est influence for the democratization of industry re- 
sulting from the war. This is the war debt. How will it 



PROBABILITIES 427 

be paid? How will it be possible to pay it by the old 
methods? The question has been asked and by mod- 
erate-minded men, whether the next decade will not 
behold the beginning of an almost world-wide repudia- 
tion of obligations so vast as to be impossible of pay- 
ment. Such a prospect, however, is not substantial. 
But, that new methods of payment of this unthinkably 
enormous war debt must be devised, is reasonably cer- 
tain. 

Here again democratic collectivism steps in with a 
plausible plan. This plan is that the governments of 
the debtor countries shall take over basic industries 
(or retain them where already they have been taken 
over for war purposes) and from their profits dis- 
charge these vast war obligations. The advocates of 
this plan cite the immense income which such sources 
of revenue would yield. 

A movement is already discernible in more than 
one of the countries at war to solve this desperate 
fiscal problem by having the government operate steel 
mills, coal and other mines, railways, shipping and 
ship building, and such like basic standard sources of 
production and distribution and devote their massed 
earnings to a discharge of the indebtedness which war 
has created. Should this be done, it is likely to be- 
come permanent rather than a mere temporary ex- 
pedient; for if the countries involved succeed in pay- 
ing their war debts in this way rather than by the old- 
fashioned methods of taxation, is it not probable that 
the people will demand that peace expenses be paid in 
the same way instead of in the old way? 



428 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

This new advance of democracy, in the belHgerent 
nations, is being vitahzed by a spirit of self-sacrifice 
and mutual helpfulness new to the modern world. For 
example, at least in France and Germany, nobody, it 
seems, is thinking of himself or herself, hardly even 
of his or her family. The human sympathy of each 
man and woman raised to the heights of exaltation is 
both individual and collective ; it flows out not only to 
each needy and suffering one, but also spreads to the 
whole community and to the nation. 

In Germany and France no one thinks of asking 
"What can I do for myself," but "What can I do for 
others?" Their joy is in giving. They are thrilled 
by the beauty of helpfulness. They have discovered 
the ecstasy of devotion to others. They have experi- 
enced the glory of self-sacrifice. Almost it would seem 
that, in Germany and France, the soul has broken the 
bands of self and is mounting upward on wings of 
light. These sentences will appear extravagant to us, 
dwelling in security and in comfort; but they are writ- 
ten deliberately because they are necessary to bring 
to the American mind the moral and spiritual change 
that war has wrought in the countries where its blows 
have been most cruel. 

Another result of the war which is reasonably prob- 
able is the extension of international law for the pro- 
tection of private property on the sea in war time. 
At present international law permits and justifies a 
belligerent power to capture ships and cargoes sailing 
under the flag of a hostile nation. 

After the war, the whole structure of international 



PROBABILITIES 429 

law will be built upon new and more rational founda- 
tions; and one of these will be that merchant ships 
carrying a purely commercial cargo totally uncon- 
nected with war shall be unmolested no matter under 
what flag that ship sails, to or from what port it is 
bound, or in what country it is owned. 

The oceans are the common highways of mankind. 
Their waters belong to all, and no nation, no matter 
how powerful, should be allowed to destroy exclusively 
peaceful commerce on the seas. This proposition was 
advanced at one of the international conferences at 
The Hague ; among the greater powers. Great Britain, 
France, Russia and Japan opposed it, and Germany, 
Austria, Italy and the United States supported it.* 

The good sense and justice of such an international 
law will be recognized by all mankind, when the war, 
which is teaching so many lessons, shall have come to 
an end. The sea activities of future wars will then 
be confined to naval battles and the search for and 
confiscation of contraband. 

Thus one powerful argument for great naval arma- 
ments will be removed on the one hand and thus also, 
on the other hand, international business will go for- 
ward during hostilities very much as in peace time. 

Further forecasts than the above can not be ventured 
with any degree of rational confidence. The war has 
inspired some brilliant dreams for the world's future. 
One of these is the big idea of a United States of 
Europe with a common parliament which would make 



* See "International War Topics," Naval War College, 1913, 
p. 113. 



430 WHAT IS BACK OF THE WAR 

war between European countries as impossible as be- 
tween the separate states of our own country. But 
this is not likely because of the racial lines upon which 
most European nations are established; and also be- 
cause of the bitter animosities whose dragon's teeth 
are now being sowed. Still, so elemental are the 
changes which the war is making that even this 
thought may be realized as the decades roll on. 



THE END 



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